When student senators noticed hikes in the price of parking permits and perceived a lack of accessible parking due to construction, they brought their concerns to the campus community and upper administration.
The senate passed legislation that addressed the student body’s parking challenges on Oct. 1. From 2024 to 2025, annual permits for commuters increased by about 72%, or from $290 to $500, according to the resolution. Semester permits rose by about 52% – from $180 to $275.
Kairy Gonzalez, the senate’s chair of cultural affairs, worked as a resident adviser over the summer and said she heard a lot of frustration from fellow R.A.s and other upperclassmen about parking prices.
Campus Affairs Chair Cameron Hudson commutes to campus and finds it difficult to get a spot in the Fine Arts Lot, which is closer to many of the campus’ academic buildings.
Gonzalez, Hudson and other senators heard complaints from students and came together at the start of the school year to start a petition, according to Aaron Ramos, vice chair of campus affairs.
Asking students if they wanted the senate to advocate for lower parking permit prices and increased campus parking spaces, the Campus Affairs Committee and Cultural Affairs Committee distributed petitions over three days, starting Sept. 18, according to Gonzalez. Their petition garnered 203 signatures.
“We went around, we talked to professors, we talked to students, and it was a resounding: ‘We need to fix this issue,’” Ramos said.
On Oct. 1, the senate passed a resolution that voiced the student body’s parking concerns, according to Vice Chair for External Affairs Ryan Niro. The senate’s approval is not legally binding, but formally unifies the senate’s objectives.
“[The resolution] decries the recent action of the administration, Transportation and Parking, and the other budgeting offices on campus,” Niro said.
The resolution included referenda to create accessible parking and readjust permit prices for residents and commuters at the University of Rhode Island, according to Niro. The first referendum asks students whether administration should create additional parking at the Kingston Campus for accessibility, and the second asks whether permit parking rates should be made cheaper. The committees received 51 votes for each referendum.
The first referendum is in response to complaints on campus about the lack of accessible parking and lot closures, and the second is in response to recent price jumps for permits, according to Niro.
When the senators looked through URI’s master plan, they thought parking was not addressed enough, according to Ramos.
“The president is aware of the student senate survey regarding parking and concerns expressed by some students,” said Dawn Bergantino, assistant director for communications at URI, in a statement to The Good Five Cent Cigar. “He continues to work with the administration and finance team to evaluate and support the parking and transportation needs of our community.”
Abby Benson, vice president of administration and finance at URI, said she hears concerns about affordability and accessible parking from students and families. However, the university’s 30-year comprehensive plan pushes parking to the perimeter.
The university wants a pedestrian-friendly campus, according to Benson, while students want closer parking, according to the senate.
“I know [the parking situation] is not necessarily what students might want for convenience, but is really in line with land-use planning and goals of keeping an academic, research and student support services core really close together for students,” Benson said.
The plan eventually wants to establish parking garages in the Fine Arts, Flagg Road and Plains Road lots, according to Benson. While they take up less space, parking structures are expensive to build.
URI is “in a challenge” especially over the next two years because it will lose several hundreds of parking spaces, according to Benson. This is because the university is building two undergraduate dorms and replacing the graduate village.
“We know that housing is so important, especially for our upperclassmen that want to stay here and live on campus beyond their first or second year,” Benson said. “So it’s a trade off, really – building a dorm where we have a parking lot.”
Benson predicted that URI will face a deficit of a few $100,000 a year in revenue from the loss of parking spots during this construction, which was a factor in the decision to increase parking permit prices. More students will be using shuttles during this time as well, so that will cost the university more as well.
Upper URI administration looked at peer institutions around New England to compare permit costs, according to Benson. How URI fit on the scale also contributed to their decision.
The University of Connecticut’s annual resident permits cost range from $365 to $1,098, varying depending on the parking lot the student chooses, according to UConn’s parking services webpage.
The University of Delaware has a resident garage and charges students per year starting on the month purchased, according to its permit pricing site. Prices start at $1,175 for September and end at $163 for August.
“Resident East” permits at the University of New Hampshire cost $600 and “Resident West” permits cost $450, according to the parking section of UNH’s website.
URI also compared its parking prices to the University of Vermont and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which have slightly lower prices, according to the UVM website and the UMass Amherst website.
After meeting with university leaders, the URI student senate met with Transportation and Parking to discuss parking concerns. However, Hudson said it is not TAP’s fault for the perceived issues in pricing and accessibility. He cited upper administrative executives and the Board of Trustees as being the driving factor behind student complaints.
“This [decision] went through all of them, and that’s who the real culprit is,” Hudson said.
