It never ends with Campus Parking Services. Fines for parking tickets skyrocketed in the fall. Parking services removed 170 meter spaces to make room for “general permit parking,” meaning it made room to fit $400-$500 reserved spots. Not only did fines double for expired meters, but the prices to park in a meter doubled, and the time you can park in meter spots was cut in half.

Parking lots for commuter students are always jam-packed with cars waiting to snag a space, while blue permit lots have dozens of empty spaces.

Now, fees are increasing for parking permits.

Although for a commuter with a yellow permit the fee is only increasing $2, it is the principle that matters. Why, when commuters have to fight for a parking spot on most days, should they pay more for a permit?

Parking services acknowledges the fact that they sell more permits than they have spaces because not all commuters are at NIU every day. Maybe rather than force commuters to spend 15 minutes waiting for a spot, they should put a cap on the number of permits they sell.

Reserved spots take up about 22 percent of parking. The parking services committee said the goal is to reduce this to 15 percent to make room for more parking for blue and yellow permit holders.

Maybe they should have done this in the fall rather than making more reserved spaces in parking lots like the Chick Evans Field House. And it seems that when parking services says they are creating more spots for “yellow and blue,” what they really mean is blue.

The Northern Star hopes they will actually make more spots for commuters this time around. NIU has many commuters. Just because they don’t live in DeKalb doesn’t mean they should have to fight for a parking spot.

Agree? Disagree? Contact us at [email protected].