To the Editor:
All students are about to be assessed a fee based upon their ‘credit hours’ to build a parking garage for a mere 600 vehicles that appears to be pacifying the City of Portland and not as an accommodating remedy to the parking crisis at USM.
This is one project where the solution does not seem to merit its construction. Granted, something is better than nothing, but at what cost?
A fee that is now affordable, and a choice, is being changed to a mandatory assessment that some students will pay many times over. Students relying on financial aid will have this parking fee compounded with interest over the life of their loans, making the fee much higher. If all students are being charged for a parking decal, I assume they will all be issued one. Those who have chosen not to purchase a decal in the past will now have one and become part of the masses searching for the elusive ‘spot’.
A USM enrollment approaching 11,000, all being issued a decal for an extra 600 spaces. This assessment penalizes the people who use public transportation, the university shuttle, or walk to school for their efforts to reduce energy consumption.
As far as access to the parking lots being controlled by a gate, I will offer as evidence the gate at the ‘freshman lot’ on the Gorham campus for life expectancy purposes.
If the fee for a parking decal was raised to any amount deemed applicable and left as an option to purchase, I am sure the lots would still be filled, but to add further mandatory costs to student’s bills is an unpalatable solution.
Ronald Gervais
Commuter Student