February 17, 2020

Please sign this petition if:

A.   you have ever arrived at a Rutgers parking lot and it was full, which forced you to either: 1) attempt to park at a different lot 2) attempt to create your own space or 3) pay for parking elsewhere. OR

B.    You have received at least three tickets from Rutgers parking (please include the dates and costs if possible).

 

More information can be found below.

 

 

RE: Rutgers Parking Reform

 

Dear Members of the Rutgers Newark Community:

 

As many of us know, parking on Rutgers Newark campus is a source of major stress for many students. For those who opt to park in the commuter lots, those lots fill up very quickly and very early. Many commuters are forced to come to campus hours before class starts, or to park at a parking lot almost a mile away and make the trek over to campus.

 

Today, I was horrified when I arrived at Deck 2 and counted four  students asleep in their cars, on a morning when it was only 36 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I arrived at about 7:45am, and all of those students had arrived before me. No classes on this campus begin before 8:30am. Meaning those students would have to sleep in the cold for almost an hour, just for the sake of getting a parking spot, in a lot they paid for.

 

But the parking transgressions do not end there. Daily, students are ticketed by Rutgers for parking in the incorrect parking spot. Not only do students have to worry about loans, trying to find the funds to buy food, but Rutgers also insists on ticketing students for things such as: parking in specific parking lots outside of allotted times and parking outside of marked lines, not taking into account that the lots were full. In 2016, Rutgers made almost $5 million dollars in parking tickets from its students. As many know, one can be precluded from receiving his/her transcript/degree if one does not pay all parking violations.

 

If this is not bad enough, students who reside on campus are forced to pay $1100 for residential parking. Yet, none of the residential parking lots are located in a close proximity to the dorms. For those who live at 15 Washington, the students pay $1100 only to have an eight minute walk from the parking decks to their dorm. This may not seem bad, but this means that students who arrive on campus late at night have to make a choice:

1) Park in the Rutgers parking lot across the street from 15 Washington (which residents are not allowed to park in except on Saturday and Sunday, thus parking in this lot on any other day will likely result in a ticket);

2) Park in one of the decks and be forced to walk eight minutes, alone, through downtown Newark, at night time; or

3) Park in the deck and call an Uber or ask for a security escort to the dorm (and hope that it is not a busy night for the CSO’s otherwise one may have to wait for a long time). (Also consider that students who live on campus may go grocery shopping, or may need to transport large items to their dorm, and even the weather conditions). We pay so much money just to still have to overcome many obstacles.

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

 

Needless to say, the parking conditions at Rutgers Newark are in need of serious reform. Rutgers Newark is mostly a commuter campus. Below are some suggestions on how to begin the reform:

 

1.     Create a student parking committee which works directly with the Rutgers Institutional Planning and Operations department to make decisions regarding who can park where and when.

 

2.     The parking lots need to be rezoned in such a way where residents are allowed to park near their residential dorms, and students aren’t forced to drive to campus two to three hours before their classes begin just to secure a parking spot. There are lots near residence halls which are only for commuters, and there are lots near the class halls which are only for residents.

 

3.     Rutgers Newark needs a commuter lounge. There is a commuter lounge in Rutgers New Brunswick. This would give students somewhere to go so they do not have to wait in their cars during cold weather.

 

4.     Students with paid parking permits should not be ticketed without receiving at least three warnings beforehand.

 

In sum, it is debatable whether buying a parking pass is truly worth it for Rutgers Newark students. For a student like myself, I have paid $1100 just to still accumulate parking tickets, be forced to walk through Newark at night alone, and last year my car was hit in front of six cameras in the parking lot. I was advised by a Detective at the Rutgers Police Department that, at the time, none of those cameras worked because the system was being updated. My car sustained $1000 worth of damage and the perpetrator was never caught. This cost falls on me, in addition to paying for my parking permit, my parking tickets, and tuition. It is hard to determine, what exactly are we as students paying for. Because we pay all this money to Rutgers, and we still end up being majorly inconvenienced. It is time for a change.

 

To the students, please sign this petition if:

A.   you have ever arrived at a Rutgers parking lot and it was full, which forced you to either: 1) attempt to park at a different lot 2) attempt to create your own space or 3) pay for parking elsewhere. OR

B.    You have received at least three tickets from Rutgers parking (please include the dates and costs if possible)

 

 

Respectfully,

CEI