Parking at

MSU

Alexis Schneider-Brock & Krysten Kelly

Technical Communication |

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Contents............................................................................................... 2
Abstract......................................................................................................... 3
Introduction..................................................................................................... 4
Background and Problem Statement..........................................................................5
Possible Solution................................................................................................ 9
Conclusion..................................................................................................... 11
References................................................................................................. 12

Abstract
Parking can be an issue anywhere, from sporting events, concerts, and schools. MSU is not the only
campus that has this issue since just about every college across the country has this problem. With student
enrollment increasing every year, the problem will only get worse. There are many solutions to this problem
including adding more parking, but there are also solutions that fix the parking problem without adding more
parking. Since MSU doesnt have much space to add more parking lots, they could put in a parking ramp or use
a new technology using an app on your phone to help find a spot along with many other things. Through
research and interviews, we found many possible solutions along with some helpful information on parking at
MSU. The obvious solution would be to add parking by building more parking, but we believe that the best way

to help solve this issue doesnt involve adding more parking.

Introduction
Clark Kerr, a former president of the University of California system, once defined the university as "a
series of individual faculty entrepreneurs held together by a common grievance over parking (Kenney, 2004).
At MSU, parking on campus tends to be lacking and expensive. Many colleges have this issue but do little or
nothing to resolve it. Students pay for passes to park in specific lots, yet it is always a gamble whether theyre

going to find a spot or not. Often, getting to campus 10 or even 15 minutes early still means you could be
spending that whole time trying to find a spot and potentially miss the first ten minutes of class, not only
because you had to find a spot to park, but you also had to walk a longer distance. This mostly happens in the
free lot, but it can also happen in lots that you have purchased a parking pass to park in. We often see students
parking on the edges of the parking lots in the grass because there were not enough spots, but they also have a
pass. Students also take advantage of snow covered lots because when the lines are not visible, theres
opportunities to squeeze in an extra few spots. Not only do off campus students have trouble finding parking,
but students who live on campus do as well, and most have to walk long distances to their cars. Most of these
lots are far away from campus which could potentially be unsafe for students to walk back to their cars or to
campus in the dark. Purchasing parking passes can also be expensive, and they often over sell the passes,
making the issue of overcrowded parking lots and meager available spaces. These are the many problems
involving parking at MSU, along with many other campuses across the country.

Background and Problem Statement

Alexis has been a student at MSU for three years, and she has found parking to be one of the most
common issues with students. Alexis tore her ACL her freshman year and had to bring her car to school so she
could drive to physical therapy. She was permitted to park in the handicap spot for two weeks, but then had to
purchase a parking spot in lot 1 (figure 1), which is quite a long distance for someone who had just had knee
surgery. You may wonder why didnt she just use the shuttle? Alexis said, Well one time I waited for the shuttle

for over a half an hour (they are supposed to come every 20 minutes or so according to the bus schedule) and I
was late for my appointment so I decided I was going to walk from then on. When I would come back from my
appointment it was tough finding a parking spot; I would often have to walk back in the dark. I didnt want to
wait for the shuttle by myself I figured it would be more safe to just walk back then to wait. Krysten is a firstyear student who lives on campus and must walk a long distance to her car in either lots 1 or 2 in order to leave
campus. The walk is not a problem when the weather is good, but you still have to compensate for the time it
takes to get out to the lots if you have to be somewhere at a certain time. With most of the walk being outside
from Julia Sears to lot 1 or 2, there arent many options for when the weather is bad. The shuttles dont always
work with your schedule, and the busses dont even stop in those lots. Krysten said, Ive taken the shuttle back
to the dorm maybe a handful of times, but only once has the shuttle actually stopped at the shelter at Sears.
Every time I get on, I ask
the driver if he stops at
Sears and the answer has
always been yes, but Ive
gotten long rides around
campus just to only drive
past Sears and drop me off
at the CSU. Id rather brave any bad weather than ride the shuttle because its not very reliable.
The number of parking spots on campus should correspond with the number of students and faculty
coming to and from campus every day. In an article by Campus Times, it says, It is hard to tell if this hefty
increase (of parking pass prices) was an attempt to make room for parking, assuming perhaps there may be
some who cannot afford it, or an attempt to take advantage of students, knowing they will buy the parking
permit anyway, only to learn later they were paying for lot space that didnt really exist (Campus Times, 2012).
Purchasing a parking pass but still not knowing if you will get a spot and then needing to park in the free lot that
is already full is often a problem at MSU. There are 5,800 parking spots throughout MSU campus and there are

over 15,000 students enrolled, along with more than 2,000 faculty members (mnsu.edu), but the number of
available spots doesnt seem to be enough. In an interview with David Cowan, he shared with us that there are
400 hundred stalls in the free lot, 200 stalls in the pay lot which costs $4.00 for an hour and an addition $2.00
after that, as well as 40 parking meters spread throughout campus that cost 25 cents for 15 minutes, then it is
capped off at 30 minutes. The rest of the parking is permit only, where prices for each parking permit is shown
in figure 2. Next year, they will be raising some of the parking permit prices to help keep their budget
profitable. The gold permits will be increased by 10 dollars, making them 300 dollars. For a college student who
already pays tuition along with rent for housing and other expenses, that is a hefty price for a close parking spot.
We want to propose that campuses should promote and reward behaviors that help reduce parking
problems, such as carpooling, riding bikes, taking the bus, and overall discouraging the use of cars on campus.
There are also many other ways to solve parking problems on campuses like building more parking, but there
are also other ways to solve the issue without adding any additional parking to campuses.

Figure 1. Parking map of MSU, showing the parking with corresponding colors with the
parking permit.

Figure 2. Shows the parking permits and their prices.

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Possible Solution
We spoke with David Cowan, the Director of Facilities Services, to
discuss this issue and to see what he thinks a good solution would be. He
discussed all the different types of parking on campus along with the budgets
of parking and buses. There is a lot of money that goes into parking and
transportation at MSU and at any college, but being that there is so much
money put into it they should have more parking available and parking
problems shouldnt exist. MSUs revenue for 2015 was $1,553,325 and the
David Cowan

expected budget for 2016 is $1,634,143.

The obvious solution to campus parking problems is to add more parking, like building a large parking
garage or adding additional parking lots but as we found it is not the best solution. That solution is costly in the
building it, but also costly in the upkeep of lots or a parking garage. Parking ramps could hold hundreds of
parking spaces and not take as much space as adding two or three more parking lots. Building a two-story
garage would cost upwards of $12 million and may only provide 300-400 more parking spaces. You could up
the garage to three or four stories, but that also dramatically ups the cost (Hunt). We believe the best solution to
the parking problem that doesnt include building more parking is that pricing strategies should include
incentives to promote desirable behavior like offering special parking lot or discounted parking passes for car
pools. Car-pooling, use of bicycles, and mass transit are some of the most inexpensive ways to reduce parking
problems. Another simple way to reduce parking close to campus is making the walkways between buildings
and parking lots safe, shaded, well lit, and appealing that would help encourage people to walk longer distances
to classes or out to their cars (Schmidt, 2010).

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An article by Daniel Kenney, How to Solve Campus Parking Problems Without Adding More Parking,
covers many possible options to solve parking issues on campuses. The article begins by stating a few reasons
why campuses are discouraging cars on campus. They estimated that student injuries or deaths caused by
automobiles on campuses have occurred at as many as 20 percent of all colleges, and they also claim that traffic
around the university drives a wedge between the university and surrounding neighborhoods because of the
increased needs of parking lots that can destroy the character of neighborhoods. As mentioned on page 9, one
solution is that pricing strategies should include incentives to promote desirable behavior like offering special
parking for car pools. At the University of Washington, the free-parking program for carpoolers has reduced
purchases of single-occupancy-vehicle parking permits by 32% over the past decade, and those who use car
pools can park free while others pay $192 per quarter, which shows that desirable behavior for parking does in
fact reduce parking pass prices along with vehicles on campus. Without vigorously managing our parking and
providing commute alternatives, the university would have been faced with adding approximately 3,600 parking
spaces, at a cost of over $100 million, says Perter Dewey, assistant director of transportation services at the
University of Washington, he goes on to say the university has created opportunities to make capital
investments in buildings supporting education instead of structures for cars (Kenney, 2004). Car-pooling, use
of bicycles, and mass transit are some of the most inexpensive ways to reduce parking problems. Colleges
should have the parking passes set to more appropriate fees, but some institutions express concerns that driving
the fees so high would create hardships for lower paid employees and needy students. As a solution colleges can
offer some portion of the parking costs into the finical aid packages of needy students. We think that colleges
should make parking passes an appropriate amount that sustains any maintenance on parking lots, but not make
passes so expensive that the college is just making a huge profit.

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Conclusion
MSU is not the only campus with increasing parking issues. Many campuses find that the students are
unhappy with parking situations, whether its the price of the parking pass, the lack of parking close to campus,
or oversold parking spaces. As the numbers of enrolled college students increase, so does the demand for
parking. Colleges need to somehow be able to keep up with this demand. There are many solutions that dont
involve adding additional parking, but it may be difficult to encourage some of those solutions. Other solutions
do involve additional parking, but those are costly and universities may not be able to afford the cost, and MSU
is a mid-sized, rural university that can easily solve parking problems without having to add more parking
because of the size and close proximity of the buildings on the campus. If MSU enforced or encouraged carpooling, bike riding, or increased use of the mass transit system, the number of people driving to campus would
decrease, as would the issue of parking and finding
available spots. Tackling the issues of the
automobiles impact is not easy, but it can have great
rewards in terms of safety, environment, town-gown
relationships, and most important, creating a sense of
community and collegiality on the campus. Many
institutions have taken the lead in controlling cars on
their campuses, and they are saving money in the process (Kenney, 2004).

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References
"Campus Times Parking Problems Were Preventable." Campus Times RSS. University of La Verne, 3 Nov.
2012. Web. 05 Apr. 2016. <http://laverne.edu/campus-times/2012/11/parking-problems-werepreventable/>.
Hunt, Pete R. "The Solution to the Parking Problem Is..." The Solution to the Parking Problem Is... Oregon
Commentator. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
<http://pages.uoregon.edu/ocomment/ocarchive/oc01_02/oc2_01_02.html>.
Kenney, Daniel R. 2004. "How to Solve Campus Parking Problems Without Adding More Parking." Chronicle
Of Higher Education 50, no. 29: B22-B23. Education Source, EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2016).
"Maps & Directions." Minnesota State University, Mankato. January 11, 2016. Accessed April 26, 2016.
http://www.mnsu.edu/maps/.
Roff, Aubrey. "Campus Parking Problems Plague Colleges Nationwide." Maristcircle. 13 Nov. 2003. Web. 05
Apr. 2016. <http://www.maristcircle.com/news/view.php/63546/Campus-parking-problems-plaguecolleges->.
Schmidt, B. H., & Westley, C. (2010). The university-as-monopolist: Why parking problems persist at
university campuses. The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 10(6), 39-43. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.mnsu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/docview/506524014?
accountid=12259

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