Closed sidewalks, traffic pileups, waking up to the sound of a jackhammer outside your dorm window. University of Maryland students have gotten used to the inconveniences that come with dozens of major construction projects happening all around campus. Maryland continues to add additional projects every semester on top of the already unfinished projects that have been hindering campus life for several semesters. The university boasts about these projects, proudly declaring how important and valuable the new buildings and spaces will be to students.
However, along with new projects come new announcements that UMD will be increasing mandatory fees for all students.
Maryland is beginning project after project, with little concern for how this will affect its students. The impact of the immense amount of construction activity can be seen by the increasing reduction of parking spaces. Expansion of Cole Field House will cut into lot 1 parking beginning next semester, and lot GG1 has already been closed to make room for the new Brendan Iribe Computer Science building. In total, more than 2500 parking spots will be lost for these projects.
Because of the loss of spots, there will be parking restrictions imposed, starting next fall, on resident freshman and sophomores who wish to keep cars on campus.
But parking reductions won't just affect students who want to park on campus. Because DOTS will lose income due to parking loss, all students, not just commuters, will be forced to pay an increase in mandatory transit fees, on top of an increased fee for anyone still parking on campus. In a Diamondback article, a DOTS representative said, "We have a certain budget which needs to be at a particular level, and it needs to stay that way even throughout all this. So when we say we have to increase fees like this, this is so we can continue to pay all of the bills."
This statement is made amid confusion from all students as we ask DOTS "What happened to all those citation fees?" Take a walk through any of UMD's many campus parking lots and you're guaranteed to see at least half a dozen little orange envelopes issued by DOTS with parking citations ranging from anywhere between 15 to 200 dollars. In fact, DOTS issues so many parking citations, one study found that UMD issued more parking citations than any other school in the country.
At over $260 for annual commuter parking permits, $514 for resident students, and $714 for satellite residents, in addition to $17 for a parking permit to one athletic event, the total revenue generated through parking citations, and already steep transit fees, it's appalling that DOTS has the audacity to cry financial strain.
UMD's enthusiasm for multiple big and flashy projects that will only financially burden students who already struggle to pay extravagant tuition prices is shameful. Rather than decreasing tuition and making necessary education more accessible to everyone, the university will continue to raise it's already steep prices, reminding us, once again, that the primary goal of higher education is to empty our wallets.
