Nothing is free today, especially at the University of Minnesota. Freshman year is blurry and who knows how much money was spent that year. Sophomore year is when you become more aware of the finances because now a job is required to survive. Junior and senior year forces some to move back home with mom and dad and commute to school. This seems to be a logical thought. A free place to live, home cooked meals, free laundry services: but think again.

Many parents are still dizzy thinking about freshman year when all their money was spent on ridiculous party clothing and inflated textbook prices. Later in the game, a job is the solution for students, so that they can afford going to and from campus.

A little more money savvy, its apparent living with the parents isn’t as luxurious as one may have thought. Commuting to school can be almost as expensive as living on campus. With gas prices creeping up to $2.50 a gallon, students within range consider biking or walking to school. However, gas is not the issue here, the university’s parking rates are.

For everyday student commuters, the parking rates on campus can take a toll on dwindling checking accounts. The University of Minnesota Parking and Transportation Services set the parking rate prices. The most expensive places to park on campus are the parking ramps and garages. However, they offer the convenience of being next to classroom buildings. But if trying to save money is your priority, then daily parking lots are the place to be.

Hourly facilities begin their rates at $2.50 for the first hour with a $12 daily maximum, or seven plus hours. Daily lots cost $3.50 and carpool lots are $2.25, for the whole day.

Once in a while, these prices wouldn’t be too bad, but think about paying five days a week. If parking at an hourly ramp, being at school for seven or more hours, five days a week, expect to pay $60 a week. For the whole semester or 15 weeks of school it would cost $900.

School is important but paying $900 to park is not. For 2006-2007 tuition, residential students paid per semester $4,705 for 13 or more credits. Non-residential students paid per semester $10,520 for 13 or more credits. Adding parking and tuition fees together, school is not cheap. Many options are given to students to help finance tuition, but what is given to help pay for parking costs?

Because students pay a hefty amount in tuition each year, it would seem only fair that students should get a discount on parking on campus.

Marketing Manager Mary Sienko, of the Parking and Transportation Services, says, “We try to be an equal opportunity for all, even with faculty and staff.”

PTS is a self-supporting department. The university or the government don’t help or support PTS. All revenue from parking ramps, garages and lots go toward funding the PTS, Sienko says. Each student also pays an additional $15 per semester for transportation through their student service fees. This $15 goes toward paying for the free campus shuttle, U-Pass/Metropass and other programs.

PTS offers other options to students, faculty and staff to avoid paying high parking rates. Most are familiar with the $62 U-Pass/Metropass that is offered each semester. “Per month what people are getting value wise is $196 and multiply that by four, for $62 for four months, students pay practically nothing for that pass,” Sienko says.

On top of the $62, PTS pays an additional fee to cover Metro Transit fees through their contract. That money is funded by the user fee or student service fees.

Students can also participate in a contract-parking lottery for several of the parking lots on campus. Even contract parking comes with a price, but it’s convenient and easy.

In Spring 2005, 3.883 students signed up for contract parking. Of that, 68 percent of commuters and 53 percent of residential hall students were chosen to receive contract parking spots in nearby ramps, Sienko says.

The new Limited Use Parking Contract has just been released. This is ideal for those students who don’t always drive to school. It costs $90 for ramps and is limited to 22 parking uses at certain areas. The contract is good for one year.

“We encourage people not to drive separately,” Sienko says.

As of this September, approximately 21,000 parking spaces are available on campus, Sienko says. Students make up the majority of the population on campus with 51,469 in Fall 2006, according to the PTS Fundamental Facts. When students, staff and faculty are combined, 32 percent drive alone to school while 7 percent carpool.

The number of available parking spaces has decreased due to the new university stadium. PTS is working on finding new areas to make up for the lost parking area. To rebuild additional parking also costs money, but it’s a necessity for an overpopulated commuter campus.

Discounted parking for everybody, especially tuition-paying students, will never happen. PTS relies on money from all commuters to help finance their department but to also build more facilities. For PTS’ fiscal year of 2005-2006, they made almost $27 million. This amount may seem excessive for a transportation department but it’s all turned around to better the university parking and transportation services for its people.