With 23 different California State Universities, research shows that a parking permit at California State University, Long Beach lands the school in the top ten lowest parking prices across the system.
Students at CSULB are required to pay $123 each semester in order to park in any of the nine lots the university offers, or an annual pass of $342 that includes summer parking. Motorcyclists pay a permit fee of $30 a semester or $105 for an annual pass.
Mike Uhlenkamp, CSULB’s executive director of news, said that parking fees are determined by an overall budget which factors in all the various costs of parking since it is a self-supported program not funded by the state.
“Compared to a community college which varies from $20 to 30, I think that it’s exponential to go up to $120 per semester,” said Joseph Tuitea, a student of the College of Continuing Professional Education. “I could understand maybe $60, maybe $70, but not $120.”
Students who do not have a valid parking permit are subject to a fine of $48, according to CSULB’s Parking and Transportation Services website. If a student displays a stolen, forged or altered parking permit the fine increases to $258.
Revenues collected from the parking permits go toward operations, parking structures, equipment, lot maintenance, upgrades, the U-Pass and both on and off campus shuttles Uhlenkamp said.
“The university typically does systematic reviews of the parking program including the pricing of the permits,” Uhlenkamp said. “But the current costs associated with parking remain the same for the current academic year.”
CSULB’s semester and annual passes do not include reserve parking or discounted permits. The university does offer free alternative transportation like the campus shuttles and a free TAP card to ride the Long Beach Transit buses.
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Sindy Aleman, a senior history major at CSULB, said that $123 for a parking permit is already “too expensive” and that she would choose to carpool if it cost anything more.
The three least costly parking permits in the CSU system belong to California Maritime Academy, California State University, Bakersfield and Fresno State University.
The most expensive parking permits belong to California State University, East Bay, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and California State University, San Marcos.
CSUSM parking permits sell for $338 a semester, making it the priciest permit across all 23 the CSU’s.
“I think [San Marcos’ parking is] insane,” Tuitea said. “I mean maybe there’s some other stuff we don’t know about it probably goes towards parking cost or college tuition fee or what not.”
According to the CSUSM website, students have three options to choose from. Permit prices range from $254 to $338 per semester depending on how close students want to park to their classes, or paying $643 for the academic year.