Spring Hill College recently notified all students that the grace period for parking without a permit is over and actions will be taken for those who do not have a permit on their car. This has in turn caused some commotion within the student body for multiple reasons.
A parking permit to park on campus at Spring Hill College for a single school year is 100 dollars. I spoke with Chief of Public Safety Kevin Anderson to ask where this money would be going, “We work with a company that administers the whole parking permit process, and we get charged for this service, so the money goes towards that and some of it goes to us.” He also commented on what having the permit does for you, “there was a wreck on campus the other day, and because they had their permits we were able to get in touch with them in a swift manner, tags aren’t as efficient as a permit because tags that students have can be registered to a step-parent or whoever and not who we need.”
Ethan Lee, a freshman on campus had this to say “ I have never had a hard time parking on campus, and I found it odd that we pay 100 dollars when the University of South Alabama only pays $15 for theirs.”
Other than being able to identify which car belongs to which student at a faster rate, the permits serve no other real purpose, as parking on our campus is not hard to come by. Many students, both new and returning, had a dislike of the mandatory permit for students living on campus. Cody Schaffer, a fifth year on campus said, “ The permits are pointless, I bought one my first year on campus and haven’t had one since and have had no issues. I have never heard of somebody actually getting fined for not having a permit.”
Paying this amount just to be allowed to park on campus, where we live for the school year, can be a real problem, especially for students who are already scraping money together to afford books and needed materials for class. Paying $100 dollars for a parking permit that goes to pay the company that supplies them, in itself is aggravating. We have much larger problems on our hands, such as endless housing problems like mold, water damage, bug infestations, etc.
If students have any questions or are in need of a parking pass, you can access the forum online at https://www.permitsales.net/SpringHillClg
