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Parking permits for underpaid UH staffers an undue burden

Beside the opening of Cougar Woods Dining Hall (above) on Monday, UH Dining Services has worked on improving dining experiences across the University’s campus. | Joshua Mann/The Daily Cougar

UH staff members, such as the workers at the Cougar Woods Dining Hall, must pay the same rate as students for parking permits. | File photo/The Daily Cougar

Waking up to go to your job is hard. The average percentage of people who cannot wait to arrive at work is probably lower than the percentage of UH students who say that finding a parking spot on campus is “not a big deal.”

Parking is difficult, but we get what we pay for. If we don’t want to have to circle the lots for 30 minutes only to have to walk 10 minutes to get to class, we could always purchase the passes for the ridiculously priced garage parking that’s located within campus.

Don’t worry. You are not alone in your parking woes; there are other people on campus that have to suffer through this tedious parking hassle — and they aren’t even part of the student body.

According to a 2011 study done by the University, we have more than 3,400 members of faculty. In addition to this high number of faculty, UH also holds other staff members that were not computed into this number. There are custodians, dining hall and food service workers and outdoor aesthetic employees that also fit into this category.

These employees work hard to make sure that our brains are being tested and our college experience is top notch. For the workers who are not professors, the rate of minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 per hour; with this average rate, employees work 40 or more hours per week to try to make our lives delicious, clean and beautiful.

One of the employees who works to help make the campus more delicious is Laura Garcia, a barista at Starbucks at C.T. Bauer College of Business. Garcia is forced to purchase the Economy parking option each school year.

“This year (the fee) was $95 — it goes up every year,” Garcia said.  “We have to come up with the money up front. They don’t give us a payment plan or anything. The University staff has a payment plan, but not for Aramark workers.”

Pulling together $95 to pay for parking is difficult — I know, I pay it too — and Economy still seems expensive as the cheapest of the options.

“I get whatever (payment plan) I can afford because I can’t afford Student or Garage parking,” she said.

As for the employees who do not want to pay the high parking prices, there are alternatives. Employees have said they either get dropped off to work to avoid the parking situation or they take the bus.

Ladesha Ellis, cashier at the Fresh Food Company dining hall at Moody Towers, has been working at the University for nine months. Ellis, like other employees, found it easier to purchase the Visitor’s Pass than pay the expensive fee to park at work. However, after attempting to find a parking space three separate times during this school year and a price rise in Visitor parking passes — she resorted to being dropped off at work every day.

“I used to buy the (visitor’s) pass, but they said the pass went up to $9 a day instead of $3 a day,” Ellis said. “I also used to buy the week pass for $12; that was affordable.”

As students, we are expected to have to pay to come to school and be taught skills that can help us in our future, but the employees who work here on campus should not have to pay to come to work and the professors should not have to pay to teach us. Staff here at UH should not have to pay the expensive parking rates the students have to pay — whether it is up front or in a payment plan. Members of the faculty and staff are literally paying money to come to work and get paid.

Unfortunately, UH isn’t the only campus that charges its faculty and staff to park on campus. Charging faculty and staff to come to work is considered the norm among college campuses.

But among the slew of colleges that charge their employees for parking, there are a few campuses that recognize the need for free parking for campus workers.

The California University of Pennsylvania is one university that offers this perk to its workers. Starting this fall at CALU, the university will be offering 276 free parking spaces for its faculty and staff. Drivers are required to register online for the free parking pass, which is on a first come, first served basis.

The University of Dartmouth offers an alternative to free and full price parking. They offer reduced-price parking permits based on the area of campus the driver works in, the amount of hours they work per week and whether the drivers have carpooled with other workers.

UH should strongly consider adopting one of these alternatives. The University makes enough money from our more than 40,000 students when they could spare some select free parking for employees of the University.

Though it is doubtful this article will change the parking situation here at UH, more colleges may adopt the mindset as the professors and workers of a university already put in so much time on campus that they should have the right to reduced or free parking.

Opinion columnist Kelly Schlafer is a print journalism junior and may be reached at [email protected]

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