EAST LANSING Mich. (WLNS) – With tens of hundreds of scholars and workers at Michigan State College, parking generally is a nightmare.
Parking tickets generate tens of millions of {dollars} in income for the College every year, however MSU volunteer Dan Ewart, is questioning the college’s parking processes. Ewart mentioned particular occasion parking is uncontrolled and impacts college students’ and workers’s capability to get the place they should be.
“It’s impacted faculty and students that I know at the University, who are either not able to get to class to teach, or get to class to attend class,” Ewart mentioned.
Ewart is an MSU alumni and at the moment volunteers with a scholar membership within the IM West health heart on campus. The lot the place he all the time parks is free after 6. He mentioned that again in October, although, he was making an attempt to park so he might attend his membership’s assembly, however the College was charging for particular occasion parking. Ewart mentioned he tried to clarify to the parking enforcement officer that he was a volunteer going to work with college students and was not attending the particular occasion.
“I could prove that I wasn’t going to the special event. I said is there any way there can be an exemption? And she said no,” Ewart mentioned.
Regardless that Ewart was volunteering, he mentioned it might have value $30 to park or $40 to get a ticket. Fed up with MSU’s inflexibility, he determined to take the ticket.
“I thought, this is worth it. I’m going to fight it and see what happens,” Ewart mentioned.
So Ewart began to battle, however he mentioned he was informed once more that he must pay the ticket as a result of parking companies is self-funded, and tickets are one of many methods it makes cash. Ewart mentioned he then received ahold of monetary information and confirmed a courtroom simply how a lot the ticket operation is making. With the excessive numbers he noticed, Ewart could not perceive the necessity to cost volunteers. He mentioned the choose noticed his facet of the argument and dropped the ticket.
“They have to charge volunteers to park, and then they’re making all this profit, that to me makes me very uncomfortable.” Ewart continued, “It just gives the message that the university is really interested in making a lot of money off of parking. And that lot never fills up for these events. So, it seems like there is room to have a volunteer park and still make money off of people.”
Michigan State Public Security Operations Director, John Prush confirmed that they made round $2.1 million in parking tickets in 2024, handing out round 85,000 of them.
“Those revenues are used to actually support the system. So, building parking lots, maintaining parking lots, like cracked ceilings. Landscaping services like snowplowing,” Prush continued, “And MSU contracts with CATA for bus service, which the price of that’s born to MSU and the parking system pays about half of that.”
The operations director says parking companies additionally pays about $4 million a 12 months in debt companies to repay the parking ramps on Shaw lane, Trowbridge, Grand River, and the ramp throughout from the Breslin Middle. Concerning particular occasion parking, Prush mentioned it is simply that… particular.
“I know what it’s like that you want to volunteer and still have to pay for parking. So if you’re not interested in paying for parking in the location you want to be, I highly recommend one of our alternative lots and to use the CATA system which is very robust throughout Lansing but especially on campus,” Prush mentioned.
Ewart mentioned if he had parked some other place, he would have been late to his scholar membership.
“It would take me 20 or 30 minutes to walk, or wait for a bus that maybe would get me in the right spot at the right time if it came around,” Ewart mentioned.
Prush defined that particular occasion parking is normally introduced forward of time.
“We’ll post things on social media, we post things on our own website. Especially with football, like on a Friday night game. Those have a larger impact on a larger number of people than a Saturday game. So we always send out an email campus wide, mostly to deans, directors, and chairs, and it should spread throughout the community, letting people know when we’re going to reserve lots and what times they’ll be in operation,” Prush mentioned.
Ewart mentioned he’s conscious of this, however that this explicit sport got here as a shock, because it was outdoors of the traditional schedule.
“It was a professional basketball game put on at the Breslin Center, and there wasn’t even an expectation that there would be special parking,” Ewart mentioned.
Ewart mentioned he want to see some type of system providing exemptions or passes for volunteers like him.
“I have a friend who works at the University preparing foods for a lot of special events and he had to pay $30 just to park in the structure to go to work.” Ewart continued, “I feel the College actually must verify in with itself, perhaps do some soul looking.”
Ewart emphasised that it isn’t simply volunteers who ought to get exemptions, however that there ought to be some leeway for college kids and workers making an attempt to get to class as nicely.
“Parking needs to do a much better job of ensuring that whatever special event parking that they enforce or put together doesn’t adversely impact students or faculty who are trying to attend classes,” Ewart mentioned.
Prush mentioned Michigan State College has a transportation and visitors committee that meets as soon as a month and anybody with issues can attend the assembly and share their ideas.
