The Parking and Transportation Fee for a full time student at USI has increased for each student $15 over the past 4 years. Currently, all full-time students pay $90 a semester, regardless whether they live on campus or commute.

“The fees are ridiculous” said Ryan Moll senior exercise sciencemajor said. “I haven’t had a problem with parking, however it’s very ‘fend for yourself.’”

“I had no clue there even was a parking fee,” junior Sidney Vieck said.

Vieck said parking was so bad at her last school, Vincennes University, that she sees no problem parking here. However, Vieck said the parking fee there is only $30 dollars a year.

Freshman Kamerin Greer, who lives in the dorms, said he rarely takes the bus, and it has little value to him. He said a route that goes Downtown would be beneficial to the bus system.

“Most people ludicrously insist on driving in circles to get into the first two rows of parking nearest the particular class that they are having,” said Mark Rozewski, vice president for finance and administration. “That’s not a service we offer at the relatively low price that we charge.”

In comparison, a parking pass at Purdue can range from $100 dollars to $1,000 dollars for reserved parking.

“Every single day… seven times a day, we count the two overflow lots,” Rozewski said.

The first Wednesday of the semester was the busiest day, with 113 spaces remaining in lot L.

“As long as I have spaces in the overflow lots, we don’t need a parking garage,” Rozewski said. “Someday we will need a garage, but I’m trying to dodge that bullet until the last possible moment.”

Certain things are subsidized by the state, but Parking is not subsidized at all, he said.

Rozewski said the parking fee could double or triple if a parking garage is added.

“I think we are getting to the near to the point where we are able to stop building new things,” Rozewski said.

He said the original parking lots desperately need to be repaved, which could cost millions of dollars, all of which is paid for by the student fee.

The parking and transportation fee also pays for any maintenance of the miles of road ways and sidewalks that twist through campus. Repaving Bennett Lane will require $200,000 of the funds. The fee also pays for the bus system on campus.

“That’s several hundred thousand dollars per year,” Rozewski said.

Rozewski said the cost of the buses keeps rising.

”Every year there is a new contract, every year the price goes up,” he said.