It may only be the second week of school but some students at the University of Lethbridge have already started to feel the stress, and it’s not from academics. This school year, many students have found themselves without a parking spot.
“Parking is one of those necessary evils” Nancy Walker, the university’s vice-president of finance, said.
With an increase in students and a decrease in parking stalls, hundreds have found found themselves unable to drive to school.
“They not only increased the amount of people going but decreased the amount of stalls available,” second-year student Angie Nikoleychuk said. “We have people coming in from Pincher Creek, they’re driving two hours to get here every day, and they have to have a place to park.”
The university says it had to sacrifice two parking lots earlier this year to accommodate the construction of the new destination project.
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“We did lose some parking stalls this semester with the construction of the new arts and science building,” Walker said. “We lost about 180 or so stalls.”
The situation left students like Nikoleychuk feeling a financial pinch and without a university-subsidized bus pass, many are finding it difficult to afford attending school.
“We are one of the very few universities across the country that does not have a student bus pass,” Walker said.
“Students can’t afford the transit,” Nikoleychuk said. “Transit passes for students are running almost $300 a semester – that’s a lot of money – and according to some students, more than the parking passes were sold for.”
The university will be working with the Students’ Union and the city to explore the possibility of introducing subsidized bus passes in the months to come.
Until a permanent solution is found, the university has opened its stadium parking lot, free of charge, to students who need parking.
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