Jamie Gholson/ Fourth Estate
Mason faces parking shortage as enrollment booms
BY JAMIE GHOLSON, STAFF WRITER
“George Mason prioritizes accepting new students but forgets to prioritize parking,” senior Kat Benson said. Benson, a commuter student, is one of many students who find themselves frustrated with Mason’s parking options.
In an email interview, the director of Parking and Transportation at Mason Joshua Cantor said that Mason accepted 40,000 students in the 2023-2024 calendar year. Of the 40,000 students, roughly 34,000 are commuters at the Mason Fairfax campus.
Mason recently announced that they have accepted the largest freshman class in school history with 4,600 new students joining the Fall 2024 semester. Mason also announced the largest incoming undergraduate class with more than 7,600 students. Every year comes with an increase in students; however, the lack of lot expansion may lead to an even more frustrating commute.
Many commuter students at Mason have expressed that parking on the Fairfax campus has been a persistent problem. Complaints range from the price of parking permits to lot capacity.
According to the Lot Count 2023, the Fairfax campus has a total of 12,431 parking spaces, with less than half of the spots designated for general parking. Rappahannock Deck, Lot A and Lot K account for 3,271 of the total 5,906 general parking spaces.
“You know exactly how many spaces there are, but what you don’t know is every student’s parking schedule,” said junior Libby Bondi.
In the spring semester of her freshman year, Bondi experienced a car crash in one of Mason’s parking lots. She said that students, “scramble to find the quickest spots because they know they’re so limited.”
“I’ve heard that some students walk across campus, show up an hour early for parking, circle the parking lot for 30 minutes or sometimes even skip class due to no parking spots. I just find that ridiculous,” senior Emma Paskey said.
In addition to a scarce amount of space, some students worry that the parking spaces are too small.
“[Students] run into spots too small and their side mirrors scratch the other cars,” Bondi said. She also often finds students speeding into the small parking spots, which can result in cars parking in multiple spaces or damaging the cars beside them.
Cantor said that students may perceive the spaces to be small, but they are traditionally 8.5’x18’, a requirement from Fairfax County, Virginia.
Some students addressed the price of parking permits, expressing that the costs are too high given the lack of space.
After paying $80 per semester at Delaware Valley University before transferring, Benson said they find the parking rates at Mason “surprising.”
Mason’s cheapest parking pass is $120 per semester on West Campus, which is a 30-minute walk to Fairfax’s main campus. Mason’s general parking pass covers nine lots and is the second most expensive at $280 per semester. Mason Pond, one of Mason’s parking decks, is the most expensive at $450 per semester covering six lots on campus. According to Cantor, Mason earns $5 million per semester in parking passes.
Benson expressed that finding a parking spot can infuriate them and lead to emotional distress when trying to get to class on time. This frustration has led Benson to make difficult choices when figuring out where to park. In a pinch, Benson has had to park in the 30-minute parking spots, which has led to receiving tickets between $35 to $50, causing an additional financial hit.
Mason has tried to lessen the financial impact by offering a trade-in for parking tickets through the Patriot Pack Out Donation Drive. Every year, students can donate food or personal hygiene items to Mason’s Patriot Pantry equivalent to their parking citations.
Some students perceive the Patriot Pantry incentive as Mason being greedy. “I think it’s a money grab,” Paskey said.
Cantor said the department of Parking and Transportation receives 5 million in student fee allocation as an auxiliary service, while the rest of their revenue comes from parking. “$12 [million] roughly in permit revenue, $3 [million] in visitor/event revenue, $700,000 in citation revenue (only $3.5% of our budget)…Overall our budget is around $20 [million] annually.”
Cantor said these funds are spent toward providing various services for Mason students such as shuttle operations, garage repair maintenance and other parking operations through their operator, SP+. Despite their profits, students still feel that there is still a lack of sufficient parking throughout campus.
Benson, Bondi and Paskey suggested solutions for Mason’s parking issue. Benson suggested including building parking lots on the east side of campus or turning one of the premium parking lots into general parking. Bondi’s solution involved increasing the general parking zone in Rappahannock Deck. Paskey proposed that more signs should be created in the parking lots, the lines should be repaved and parking spaces should be made bigger.
Mason Student Government made an Instagram post about the future goals for Mason parking. This includes monthly payment plans for parking passes, applying financial aid and scholarships to parking passes, and installing more security cameras in the campus parking lots.
Adding secure measures may transform Mason’s parking and alleviate some of the students’ concerns.
