The UMass Boston coalition against parking fee increases, Stand Together, Oppose Parking Fee Increases (STOP), organized in front of the Campus Center for their first ever Parking Parade on May 9.
According to STOP, the UMass Boston administration plans on charging students $8 a day to park by June 2013, and $10 a day by July 2014. Lots A, B, C, the South Lot, and the short-term parking lot will likely be closed by next spring. The last parking fee increase occurred in 2004.
Director of Communications DeWayne Lehman, reached by email, said that his office cannot comment on the ongoing negotiations over parking fees, meaning that he could not confirm or deny the figures presented by STOP at the parade. He added that “the only lots currently scheduled for closure this summer are Lot A and the short-term lot.”
Professional Staff Union Vice President Anneta Argyres said the Parking Parade was organized to demonstrate support against the parking fee increase in a fun way, in order to engage people on campus. Argyres’ goal is to “get the message across to the administration that this fee increase would affect the entire UMass Boston community horribly, including students, faculty, and staff.”
Student Body President Alexis Marvel, who attended the parade, said, “It’s important that students don’t get hit with fees year after year.” Marvel said the ideal solution to the fee increase problem would be a “sliding scale” in which the lowest paid faculty members and students would be responsible for paying a lesser amount for parking than those with higher incomes. She added that negotiations are likely to continue into the next few months, and mediation will follow soon after.
Kathleen Elliott, a freshman, said she went to the Parking Parade “in order to support everyone who drives to campus,” and added that other commuter schools do not have such unfairly high parking fees.
STOP invited members of the UMass Boston community to fill out postcards opposing the increase to be sent to the Faculty and Staff Union, which will send the postcards to UMass Boston President Robert Caret. More than 600 postcards were collected, according to the STOP Facebook page.