Parking permits have become a staple purchase of Hamline students, faculty and staff but is it actually a necessary purchase? Almost weekly in The Oracle Incident log there is a member of the administration calling Safety and Security stating that someone is in their reserved parking spot, but is there a larger issue at hand? How often are vehicles with no permit taking permit spots? Is there anything that can be done?

On Thursday, Nov. 5 at 11:30 a.m. there were 11 vehicles in Lot B that did not have a parking permit. The following Wednesday at 7:45 a.m., there were already six vehicles without permits in Lot B before the school day even started.

Sergeant Brett Fischer, the Parking Coordinator for Hamline, stated that “some of the parking problems recently are attributed to allowing first-year students to have a vehicle on campus and the opportunity to buy a permit.”

Although Hamline does give out approximately 30-40 parking tickets weekly, this doesn’t seem to be enough to deter non-permit owners from parking in permit spaces.

On the Hamline website it says that the punishment for parking in a reserved spot without a permit is to receive a ticket. If the vehicle is not registered with Hamline, then the license plate is run through the DMV database, and if the owner is affiliated with Hamline a charge is put on their student account. This doesn’t have any ramifications if the person doesn’t own the vehicle.

The Hamline website also states that “Safety and Security Services reserve the right to tow or impound a vehicle based upon circumstances, regardless of the number of previous violations.  For example; vehicles may be towed immediately if improperly parked in reserved, handicap spaces or fire lanes.” Safety and Security doesn’t often employ this measure, as you can read in previous incident logs.

The price for a year-round day and night parking pass is $200, but this doesn’t mean that non-permit cars will not park in permit spots. Fischer believes the price is still reasonable despite those factors.

“No, the permit price is relatively cheap compared to other campuses. It is not possible to control who parks in our open lots and through enforcement, we issue tickets to the violators.”

Compared to St. Thomas and Augsburg, who charge $450 and $370 respectively per year for parking permits, this seems to certainly be the case. St. Catherine’s also charges $200 for year-round parking. Macalester breaks the mould by offering free parking permits to registered vehicles of students, faculty and staff (first year students are excluded).

Jenny Kost, a junior who has bought a parking permit stated, ”It’s irritating that we have to pay and others just park there for free. […] but we wouldn’t have as many issues with parking if Hamline had a parking ramp.”

Safety and Security tracks how many people have parking permits “This year we have sold 863 [parking] permits to students and staff, including 50 reserve permits in the Anderson Center,” said Fischer.

There are not enough parking spots for all Hamline students, faculty, staff and visitors. According to Fischer, 863 parking permits were given out this year, and a total of 710 parking spaces are available for everyone including visitors. With these numbers, there is no guarantee that a permit holder will find a parking spot.

“I guess you could say they’re guaranteeing us a parking spot,” said Kost. “I can understand why people park in the lots without permits.”

Although many assume otherwise, like Kost, a permit does not guarantee a parking space, even if parking spaces are not taken by vehicles without permits.

Attempts were made to contact other individuals from Safety and Security, but only Sergeant Fischer responded to questions.