The University will increase parking fees for students, faculty and staff by $30 for the next fiscal year, according to the proposed 2012 budget. The increase would bring the on-campus per-year parking rate to $760 for students and $550 for faculty and staff.
The fee has increased every year since at least 2006 when it was $340 for employees and $465 for students. The budgeted prices represent more than a 50 percent increase in the cost of on-campus parking over the past five years. At the beginning of the current fiscal year, parking fees increased by $10 for both students and employees. The year before, they increased by $120 for students and $85 for staff and faculty.
"Historically, the parking fees were increased at a rate of 5 percent per year, but the low annual increase was not enough to sustain the increase in transportation services such as the shuttle and (the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority)," said Elizabeth Gentry, assistant vice president for financial and administrative services.
Parking fees are used by the Transportation Office to pay for services such as SafeRide, RIPTA passes and ZipCar. Only about half of this money comes from parking fees, Gentry said, and the rest is subsidized by the University. Next fiscal year's budget allocates $92,000 for transportation services, $45,000 of which will come from parking fees.
Despite steady price increases, demand for on-campus parking outstrips supply, with many students ending up on a wait list to get a spot.
And spots have gotten scarcer as construction projects made parking lots, such as the one in front of the Olney-Margolis Athletic Center, unusable, Gentry said.
Some students choose to avoid using University parking and find alternative parking near campus. Parking spots on Craigslist range in price from $50-$150 a month.
David Manning '13 chose to forego on-campus parking in favor of an off-campus spot because "the price was way cheaper," he said, adding that he did not like the lots offered by the University.
"I could have had to walk all the way across campus to get to my car, but now my car's only three blocks away," he said. "Most people I know either live off campus in houses where parking's included, or they pay for off-campus parking. Most of them don't pay for Brown parking."
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