Parking should be free on school campuses and refunds for permits should be issued.
In light of campus closures due to COVID-19, students who purchased parking permits should be issued refunds and Long Beach City College should no longer charge students for parking going forward.
Education inherently holds enough financial barriers and parking is just another hindrance to students that already may be struggling to attend college.
Community colleges in particular, as they are not residential, require students to transport themselves back and forth to campus.
If tuition is the cost of attending school, parking is yet another fee to actually be able to go to class.
Regarding where funds from parking permits are distributed, Coordinator of EHS and Parking Services Lubert Iglesia said, “The revenue from the parking permits goes to the parking fund that covers a portion of the expense of the day-to-day business operations of the Parking Service Department of the District.”
It should not be up to students to fund the business operations of the parking department.
As for those who purchased a parking permit for the Spring 2020 semester, considering the parking permits were only in use for one month, at least the remaining ¾ should be reimbursed, if not the entire amount.
According to Iglesia, the district is currently determining if refunds will be made to LBCC students.
However, for many students struggling financially, and even more so in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision needs to be made soon.
As of March 20, Cal State Long Beach announced they would be issuing refunds to their students.
While $30 for each spring and fall session and $20 per summer and winter session may not seem as hefty as costs at other schools (for comparison, CSULB charged $155 for the 2019-2020 school year, and parking can be up to $500 a semester at USC), for students attending LBCC for multiple semesters, the cost adds up.
Community college is meant to serve as a more economical and attainable option, and charging for parking is counterintuitive to this purpose.
Especially considering the parking lots belong to the city of Long Beach, rather than LBCC (evidenced by the few tickets I received prior to purchasing a permit last semester) it can not be argued that the funds are going towards bettering the campus or another relevant purpose.
Charging for parking is taking advantage of students who have nowhere else to park.
For many students who have classes during peak hours at LAC, parking is often only available near the Veterans Stadium, which can be a 15-minute walk to campus buildings.
Perhaps an alternative would be only requiring a permit for one of the closer, smaller lots (which are usually full and have mostly staff parking), leaving parking in Veterans Stadium free.
Having to park ridiculously far from classes would be easier to tolerate if there was no cost, at least.
Furthermore, if it is impossible to completely eliminate parking fees, students that qualify should be able to waive them.
Out of the many possible fee waivers available to students, why are parking fees never addressed?
Parking is an unnecessary additional cost that students shouldn’t have to consider when evaluating their finances for college.
Considering permits are not even in use this semester, this is the perfect opportunity for LBCC to take a new step in how they handle parking.