The Troubles of Student Parking at Canisius

By: Maura Mulherin, Contributor 

The parking situation at Canisius is costly and inefficient, and many students are starting to notice this only a month into the semester. This issue is causing students major inconvenience on multiple levels. Resident students pay $150 for a parking pass for the year – which is already a lot of money for the average student – but it seemed to be cheaper and more feasible than dealing with street parking. However, a lot of students who paid for passes must resort to street parking either way. 

Street parking in Buffalo is particularly problematic because the times when parking is free are ever-changing, so sometimes you must get up early and try to find a new place to park before going to your classes. You might have to pay for parking in the morning, on top of your parking pass for the semester, or hope there’s an open space in our lot. This is not a good way to start your morning and can result in further stress in class, especially if you utilized the prior night to catch up on your homework.

According to the Canisius website, “Although the university does not guarantee a parking space, there are an ample number of spaces available daily.” While I understand that the university cannot guarantee parking, I do think that either the parking lot has been oversold, or people are parking without a permit. It is unfair to our paying students to be responsible for further expenses and stress. 

“We pay $150 for parking, just to park on the street. The school needs to increase parking or charge less for permits,” says first-year student Kristin LeGrand in response to the parking issue and what we hope to see in the future. I believe it is fair to expand what lots we can park in, since we are resigned to the ones behind our dorms, and/or charge less for the permit. If there is only a fifty-fifty chance that we can get a space in our lot, then we should be able to pay less due to the inconvenience and higher probability of getting ticketed. 

Personally, I have had to pay $100 for parking tickets already because the later you come back to your dorm, the less likely you are to find parking, even on the street. We shouldn’t have to pay for tickets because many of us can’t get spots that we’ve paid for. This will no doubt get worse during the winter and prove to be unsafe because of the ice. I think that the people who should be ticketed are those who have parked in the lot without a permit. 

In summary, the university has given us the opportunity to have our cars on campus but has not given us enough space to do so. They made us pay a price that originally seemed reasonable but now seems too high due to the number of times we cannot park there. The lack of parking spaces has led students to pay for tickets they cannot afford and spend a lot of time moving their car around, hoping to find a real place to park on top of school and work. This is something that has put financial and mental strain on our students and deserves to be addressed by the school.