Every summer there is a rush to get a good parking spot, but this year students faced difficulties when buying their permits.
There are many Keene State students who have not received their parking permits after purchasing them.
“I do believe I’ve seen other people that have purchased parking passes farther in advance, maybe in the spring? They have them on their cars,” said junior Ray Trevino. “But everybody else that ordered them in … late July or early August doesn’t have them, myself included.”
“I bought [my parking permit] in the beginning of August and we were supposed to get them by the first week before school,” continued Trevino. “They’re manufactured all the way in California; I’d rather they get produced locally.”
Students who bought their parking permits earlier in advance are also experiencing delays in getting them.
“I still don’t have [my permit],” said first-year Jackson Young, who purchased his parking permit near the end of July.
“It says on the website that it ships in two weeks, but it also says that it might be two to four … and mine has been more than four weeks at this point,” Young said.
“My freshman year … I got a parking permit and they sent it in the mail within a week or so,” said sophomore Joshua Lang. “And my sophomore year I got a parking pass online, it said they’d send it in the mail in a week or so but issues came up … the problem is solved now but it just took longer than usual.”
In addition, some students also received confusing emails about their parking permits.
“I actually got an email saying I didn’t get a parking pass,” continued Lang. “And eventually they settled it.”
On August 12, an email was sent out to students saying that all residential parking permits had been sold out and warned that students needed to purchase one to be allowed to park on campus.
“Our records indicate that you will be living on-campus this year and have not purchased a parking permit,” the email read. “Please note that until you have a valid parking permit … you may not park on campus and may be subject to enforcement action.”
These emails seemed to have been sent out regardless of if a student had actually purchased a parking permit or not. There were follow-up emails correcting this, letting students know who had purchased one that everything was fine and it was a mistake. Most of these correction emails were sent a few hours after the first. Some, however, stated that a student was living off-campus when this was not the case.
As of now, the reason for the delays is unknown.
Another email was sent out to students August 28 about a change in the price of parking permits.
“Unfortunately, as you will see, Parking Services will need to increase the price of parking permits for the next academic year,” read the email.
The email continued to explain that Parking Services hadn’t increased the cost of parking permits for eight years, but increased costs of services, contracts, lot maintenance and other expenses have made it necessary. It said that each type of parking permit for the next academic year would be increasing in cost by $50.
“Some of the costs of parking operations include more cameras and upgrades to existing cameras in parking lots and increased lighting in the area of the Winchester Lot,” continued the email. “Which were a direct result of student feedback in various surveys over the last few years.”
Orion Corbin can be contacted at
