The Observer surveyed students at CWU about parking on campus. Twenty students responded, with 85% of students stating they could not find parking or had to park further away either very often or somewhat often.
Out of the 20 students that took a survey on CWU parking, 18 said that they drove to campus. Of those 18, only 15 reported paying for a parking permit.
One survey respondent said, “After 9 a.m. it is impossible to find parking anywhere. I usually have to park off campus, which is a poor use of the almost $300 I spent on a pass.”
The price of a parking permit on campus is $268. The CWU chief of police, for 26 years, Jason Berthon-Koch, shared that the permits do not cap out. Meaning regardless of there only being about 5,000 spaces, from Berthon-Koch’s recollection of the last time the spots had been counted, any student who wants a permit will receive one, even if more than 5,000 are sold.
“I feel like the parking spots to students ratio is way off, and the amount of times people can get away with not having passes seems to outweigh the cons of potentially getting caught,” Blake Cloud, a third year Law and Justice major, said.
Berthon-Koch commented on issues facing parking on campus, stating that while CWU does have the most parking they’ve ever had, not all of it is always best for students. “The problem we have is it is not convenient parking right next to where somebody goes to class,” Berthon-Koch said. “We have that problem sometimes, as well as that, students would rather park up by the Psychology building and then drive to Shaw-Smyser instead of walking for the next class. And they’re late because that’s a tough zone down there and there’s not a lot of parking spaces either, so instead of walking, we end up with traffic at class breaks, etc.”
“I live on campus but I have a car and occasionally drive to campus. I do pay for a parking permit. It is impossible to have a car on campus. The parking is so far away. I would make parking free and it is [just] so far away,” Charlotte McNeely, a second year, said.
In 2018, CWU Parking had been granted permission to raise the price of parking for students by 10%. With the cost of tuition getting an increase well, the school decided to not participate in the increase. Parking on campus has proceeded with the same price since.
“Parking does not get tuition dollars. It does not get state funding. It is a self support entity, meaning the money that parking makes stays in parking and gets utilized for parking stuff,” Berthon-Koch said.
Because of this system, Berthon-Koch also stated that, “every employee that works here has to buy a permit.” Meaning that the spaces are shared not just between students, but staff as well, especially during days where the staff lots fill up.
Parking permit fees as well as tickets cover the costs of repainting the lots, sanding them, putting gravel in the free lots and clearing off any snow/ice.
Berthon-Koch claimed that a solution that has been suggested has been to add new lots. He stated that this would require demolishing some of the greenery surrounding CWU.
“We have a sustainability goal at the institution,” Berthon-Koch said. He claimed that getting rid of nature would be going against this goal.
He stated that parking is, and will continue to be, changing at CWU as talks and plans adapt to the student body at large.
