Brock University administration may soon find themselves wrapped up in another parking controversy after they quietly made (and unmade) parking paid during the spring and summer terms.
This past summer, Brock University made the highly controversial decision to enforce paid parking in all on-campus lots until 9 p.m. during the fall and winter terms. In years past, parking had been free and accessible to all after 6 p.m., something that many students utilized for evening classes or late-night study sessions. Just like many other car owners enrolled at Brock who are unwilling to pay for a costly permit, I was very frustrated when this new policy was announced.
Parking passes are astronomically expensive, and if you aren’t planning on parking on campus every day, they are certainly not worth your money. At Brock, the most expensive parking permit is for Lot 1, which costs $770 annually (September to April) or $455 for the fall term. Daily parking at Brock costs $4 an hour or $14 for the day and the price for a monthly Lot 1 parking permit is $120. For many full-time students who are paying a nearly $8,000 tuition bill, the expenses related to a parking permit are out of the question.
Furthermore, it would be remiss not to note that in comparison to other universities in Ontario, the price for a Brock parking permit is quite high.
At Western University, the only parking pass available is the student green pass, which allows students to park in nine different lots. This pass costs $612.51 annually ($157.49 cheaper than the Brock permit) and $302.26 per term ($152.74 cheaper than the Brock permit). At the University of Waterloo, the cost of a monthly parking permit is $208.50 ($246.50 cheaper than the Brock permit) and the most expensive daily parking option is $8 ($6 cheaper than Brock’s daily parking). At McMaster, students can park in Lot M for $55 a month ($65 cheaper than Brock’s monthly permit) and even at Queen’s, a university notorious for its high expenses, parking permits are sold at $117.52 per month ($2.48 cheaper than the Brock permit). Of course, Brock does not have the highest parking pass on the market, but it is noticeably higher than many other universities in the province.
When the choice to get rid of complimentary parking from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. blew up in the faces of Brock officials earlier this term after wide opposition from Brock students and BUSU executives, they updated their new parking policy in response.
The result?
A parking rate of $6 was put in place in Lot D for the evening and parking was made free after 6 p.m. in Lot 2 for the fall term. While some thought this was a victory, I’m still not certain. For students attending classes late at night, especially young women like myself, it is often frightening to walk long distances across campus alone in the dark and because of this, I still often paid the $6 to park in Lot D. For me, the money was worth my safety and my own peace of mind.
While I cannot say for certain whether Brock administration considered this scenario when making the only free parking in the farthest lot from campus, I’m quite sure fears such as mine have been incredibly beneficial to them financially. On top of that, members of the community who attend events like varsity sports games or other communal gatherings, many of which take place after 6 p.m., are now forced to pay for parking to participate, making the university even more cash.
Still, as the months went on, student outrage regarding the parking change died down and apathy set in. It was then that Brock administration spotted their opportunity to quietly update the parking services page displaying parking rates, notifying students that unless they had already purchased an annual permit, they would have to purchase a new parking pass if they wanted to park their car on campus during the summer months — or so we thought.
It appears that any official word that Brock was changing summer parking from free to paid has disappeared from the Parking Services website. Still, while the official parking website no longer states that parking will be paid during the summer months, it is clear that something is still amiss.
A snapshot of the parking services website from Wayback Machine taken on April 20 shows that regular annual permit parking at that time was valid until April 30, as that is when the free summer parking went into effect. Now, the regular annual permit parking is valid until Aug. 31, suggesting that parking in the summer will be paid. Furthermore, when one attempts to order a parking permit, the website now states: “New for 2024 – All Annual Non-Residence Permits are now valid through to August 31 at no additional cost.” This update also suggests that paid parking from May to August will soon be announced.
If all of that wasn’t a clear enough indicator, a parking update from The Brock News posted on Nov. 19 clearly states that “effective Tuesday, April 1, 2025, a permit or paid parking via the HONK app will be required for spring and summer parking from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.” This article seems to be the only place this parking update is explicitly outlined on any official Brock website.
It is clear that Brock will soon have to announce this shift towards paid parking during the spring and summer. While they may be hiding from it now, likely due to the backlash they received from their choice to extend paid parking until 9 p.m. during the school year, the writing is on the wall.
This decision is deplorable. While I recognize that Brock is facing a $37 million operating deficit, which represents roughly 10 per cent of the university budget, it is reprehensible that the administration is attempting to make that money off the backs of students, especially considering many of those students have already been put in significant debt as a result of the price of tuition.
On top of that, this school year alone, I paid over $1,000 in course and session ancillary fees. At least some of that money must be going to the budget that the university is so desperately trying to balance, right? Well, it’s not clear that it is.
While parking may seem like a small part of university life, it is an incredibly expensive part, and it is only growing pricier. Students deserve to be able to afford to park on campus. Students who choose to park on campus also deserve to feel safe getting to their cars at night. Finally, students deserve honesty and responsibility from their post-secondary institutions when it comes to financial matters. Right now, Brock University is failing at all of these things.
It’s time to do better, Brock.