by Joe King
Parking Services has announced that parking fees for faculty and staff will increase by $15 for the 2008-2009 academic year and $10 per permit for students.
The increase will boost the annual cost of a blue, non-reserved parking permit to $100 a year, and a reserved permit to $575. Student permits now will range in price from $37 to $75 per year.
“We regret having to raise the fees so dramatically, but sharply rising costs and a lack of other funding alternatives leave us with little choice,” says Sam Baker, chair of the Campus Parking Committee.
The culprit behind those rising costs is inflation in general and oil prices in particular.
Oil is a major component in the asphalt needed to build and repair parking lots and, over the last three years, has contributed to a 40 percent increase in bids from paving companies, says Jeff Daurer, director of capital budgeting and planning for the Division of Finance and Facilities.
That trend is particularly bad news at this time as Campus Parking has a backlog of $6.7 million in repair, restoration and construction work that has been deferred over the last decade or so. Many of those projects are becoming critical and need to be addressed sooner rather than later, Baker says.
Parking Services, which does not receive any general revenue money (it is supported by fees and bonds), has tried to increase revenue from sources other than permit fees. Administrators have raised the prices charged in the Visitor Parking Lot, have increased fines for parking violations and bumped up the cost charged to outside groups that rent parking lots for special event parking – as much as 500 percent in some cases.
Orders for new permits (which must be displayed starting July 1) will be taken beginning June 2. They can be submitted in person at the Parking Services office (on the corner of Normal Road and Lincoln Terrace) or ordered via campus mail using a form that will be mailed to current permit holders.
To help offset the cost of parking permits, faculty and staff now can spread the payment across 10 pay periods and have a portion deducted pre-tax from their paycheck.
While the price increase for permits is much steeper than in past years (the cost of a blue permit increased only $10 from 1998 to 2006), parking costs at NIU will remain lower or in line with those at similar universities around the state and throughout the Mid American Conference: UIC ($782), U of I ($472), Central Michigan ($185), Kent State ($132), Eastern Michigan ($104), SIU ($98) and ISU ($91).