URI Parking: Think

Big, Do We?
By: Analee Santaromita
It is a Monday morning; 9:50 to
be exact, and you have class in
Chafee Hall for class in exactly
ten minutes. As you tear
through the commuter lot in
attempts to find a parking
space, your heart is racing; you
cannot be late to class. There
are a plethora of cars you pass
without parking passes sitting in
their windows. The time is now
9:55, you come to terms that
you will be very late to class by
the time you cross campus in
order to find a parking space.

As a URI student myself and

having spent three years
parking on campus, I have come
to the conclusion that there is a
controversial issue on the
University of Rhode Island
campus. The issues at large
regarding parking are number of
parking spaces as well as the
importance and price of the
passes themselves. Following
this issue, a plethora of people
park illegally just to get to class,
limiting the number of available
spaces for people that actually
hold valid parking passes, which
not to mention, are very pricy.
The question driving this
problem exists to be what is
causing the real problem with
parking is here at our university
and can it be fixed? Is parking
services at fault here or is it just
the students who park here?
The University of Rhode Island
reports that it there at 14, 207
undergraduate students that
come to campus for classes. Of
all of these students, the
universitys website reports that
more than half are commuter
students. This means that these

students live in off campus

housing, mostly in the town of
Narragansett (about a twenty
minute commute).
Because of the large population
of students in general, URI has
created a parking services
building and workforce in order
to support our large student
body. The University of Rhode
Island has designated parking
lots for all of URIs students.
These lots are the Fine Arts lot,
the Church Lot, the Plains Lot,
the Keaney Lot, Flag Road Lot,
and the two Greek lots. URI
does not just let anyone park in
these lots, they are designated
for people based upon where
they live, and then based upon
what pass they acquire from
parking services.
Parking services gives three
options for those looking to
purchase a parking pass. First,
there are resident permits, for
people who live on campus in
dorms or in on-campus housing,
which are $260 for the year.
Next, there are Greek and
special program passes, which
are for people that reside in a
Greek house on campus, or
special program housing such as
the womens center, which are
$260 a year as well. Lastly,
commuter parkers who reside in
off campus homes pay $185 per
year for a pass.
As reported by URI students, the
largest complaint heard is that
they cannot find a convenient
parking space. As said by the

manager of URI parking

services, Joe Paradise, I feel
there is ample parking on the
Campus however, Lack of
convenient parking spaces;
everyone wants to park outside
the classroom door. Because
of this point, students try their
best to park as close to their
classes as possible. Because of
this, convenient spots are taken
up very quickly, leading other
people to spend time driving
around trying to find somewhere
further to park.
On URIs official website, they
respond to a question posted
Ive had difficulty finding
parking, where in the world can I
park? The University responds
to this question by saying:
Generally, if you arrive oncampus after 8:45am there WILL
NOT be parking in the lots
closest to where your classes
will be (e.g., Fine Arts Lot,
Church lot, or along Flagg
Road,). However, there is ample
parking available in the two lots
(e.g., Plains Road Lot and the
Keaney Lot) furthest from the
upper section of campus.
This seems to be an issue
because students that are
driving this far to come to class
want to be able to easily find
somewhere to park their cars.
As we unfold the issue of lack of
parking spaces, we find that
many believe the issue is
attributed to students wanting
convenient parking.

Taking into consideration the

lack of convenient parking for
the majority of URIs students,
we must look further into what
we are paying to park here
anyway. The manager of
parking services Joe Paradise
The Parking Services office is a
self-supporting enterprise. All
revenues collected through
permit sales, visitor fees and
parking tickets stay in the
department to help defray the
cost of maintenance projects,
building of new parking
facilities, salaries of staff and to
make payments on the bonds
associated with previously built
parking lots. Joe explains that
while some may think passes
are very pricy, the money goes
to a good cause. Without
charging for parking passes,
parking services would not be
supported because it is a selfsupporting enterprise, meaning
the university does not fund
them. And with the large and
rising population of students,
what would we do without the
organization of parking
services?
At the same time, with the cost
of tuition and the many
expenses of a college student,
these prices seem to be
excessively high to some.
Cassidy Delaney, a junior
pharmacy major here at URI
claims I paid $260, no (this
price is not fair). I do not know
why it is so expensive because if
people get towed or ticketed
thats just another fee to pay.
We are also in rural Rhode

Island, it is not like we are in a

city, and we should not have to
pay for parking. We pay so
much money for tuition here I
would think this should be
covered.

The overall theme of student

complaints regarding parking is
that they are paying such a high
price and sometimes, since a
major issue is students parking
illegally or in incorrect areas, not
even having a spot to park in.
Because people are searching
for a convenient spot, they park
in lots that do not abide by their
passes, which takes up spots
from people that have
applicable passes for the lot at
hand. This issue just adds on to
the issue of lack of spot and/or
convenient spots. If so many

students are willing to park in

spaces that do not abide by
their passes, is it unjust to have
different passes cost different
amounts?
Mark Turner, a housing director
at URI acknowledged the issue
of parking on campus during an
interview. When asked what is
take on parking here was he
explained, There are not
enough spots for the amount of
cars that are allowed, they are
giving out a lot of passes
because they want more money,
this is a business, they want
people to buy more passes so
that they make more money.
Mark has held his position as a
housing director for over ten
years, and has since gotten to
know a lot about the issues
students face when they bring
their cars to this university. Mark
attributes some of the problem
to the idea that parking services
has given out too many passes
for the amount of spaces and
lots available.
Just before becoming a housing
director here at the University of
Rhode Island, Mark was a
student in the 90s. He
explained that when he was a
student no one was required to
buy a parking pass in order to
park on campus. Since the
amount of incoming students
has increased every year, the
University has created parking
passes to keep parking under
control, but it seems to be, as
we can see, anything but under
control.

Overall, we can see that there is

a tangible issue with parking on
campus, although the reason
behind it is commonly debated.
Since we know there is an issue,
it is important to explore some
solutions.
Both Mark (housing director at
URI) and Cassidy (Junior
Pharmacy major at URI) brought
up the idea of no longer allowing
freshman students to have cars
on campus to combat the
limited parking situation. When
asked if he thinks there is
anything that can be easily
changed about the parking here,
Mark responded and said Yes,
freshman not having cars.
Plenty of other schools do not
allow freshmen to have cars on
campus; I think that would
alleviate many of the problems
on campus. The problem is,
almost everyone nowadays has
a car, and no one walks
anywhere.
When asked the same question,
Cassidy responded in the same
nature. Maybe they should not
let freshmen bring cars, this
would free up spaces. Also, a
parking garage would be a good
use of space.
When I asked the manager of
parking services he thinks
freshmen should be allowed to
have their cars on campus, he
said, At this time freshmen
residents can have vehicles on
campus however there may be
a time in the near future that

freshmen residents will not be

allowed to have vehicles on
campus. This is assessed each
year and the University will
implement this policy if need
be. As you can see, views on
freshmen parking passes can
differ, but it is interesting that
the option is assessed every
year by parking services. Since
freshmen make up a large
portion of the undergraduate
population, this seems to be a
possible option for the
University to implement in
attempts to aid the parking
issues that students experience.
After exploring the University of
New Hampshires website, I
found that they have a very
similar campus total to the
University of Rhode Island,
around 15,000 undergraduates,
while ours is measured at a little
over 14,000. They are an
example of eliminating
freshman parking in order to
have more spaces available for
undergraduate students. On
their site, they state that
parking passes are not offered
to UNH students. In addition,
they only charge commuters
$50 for a parking pass, and their
resident parking seems to be
around the same range as ours
at URI, ranging from $100-$200,
depending on which lots you
purchase your pass for.
What UNH seems to do is
something that seems possibly
relate to URI. Selling passes
based on specific lots may be
another possible idea for a

solution to solve the issue of

people parking in the wrong
places. This way, you always
know which exact lot you must
park in everyday. This might
make it easier for parking
services officials to monitor
each lot, and ensure that
everyone in that specific lot is
entering with the right pass.
Another common solution raised
is implementing a parking
garage on URIs campus.
Cassidy Delaney states, A
parking garage would be a good
use of space. Since parking
garages are many levels and
hold a large amount of spaces,
she believes a parking garage
would benefit the university.
When asked about if he thinks a
parking garage would benefit
URI Mark Turner responds, Yes
because we would have more
spots. But would people park in
it? I think the issue is that
people want to park as close to
you can to your class. Mark
ties this solution into the aspect
of convenience causing the
issues URI has with parking.
The manager of parking services
also goes into detail about the
idea of creating a parking
garage on campus.
The Campus Master Plan
(2001) proposed a parking
garage to be located at the
corner of Alumni Avenue and
Butterfield Road. The capacity of
the garage is projected to be
approximately 1,020 spaces.
After a financial analysis of the

associated costs for construction

and maintenance of such it was
determined that it could
reasonably be supported. The
students are currently the only
users paying for parking on this
campus which revenues from
such limits parking
improvements. Because
garages and structures are
extremely expensive to build
and operate the University
encourages significant growth
and support of other
transportation options; such as
shuttle buses, bicycles,
carpools, vanpools, the
proposed rail system, etc. to
help us continue to reduce the
need for individually operated
motor vehicles on campus.
The campus master plan that
was proposed in 2001
addressed the idea of building a
parking garage seemed to be
shut down because of high cost
not only in the build but also in
the maintenance required.
Parking services clearly would
like to explore other ventures to
combat the parking issue.
As one can see, there is an issue
regarding parking here at URI as
well as many different solutions
that are commonly discussed.
Although it is clear that different

people have different views on

the solutions, it is important to
note that they are being
discussed and that people are
aware of the issue at hand. As a
community, it is important to be
proactive about issues on our
campus. We must voice our
opinions on the parking here,
and publicly state them in order
to raise attention and
awareness.
Picture this, you are coming to
campus from your off campus
Narragansett home. You have
to be in class in ten minutes.
You arrive at campus and
immediately pull into your
applicable parking lot. Without
frustration, you smile as you pull
into a convenient and desired
parking space. You will be on
time to class, and have no
worries about where your car is
parked. One day this joyous
experience will be ours, but,
something has to be done first
to get there.