By NOEL MURPHY
YET another furore has erupted over parking at Deakin University as students are denied full-year parking permits until April.
The latest parking uproar follows last year’s student union attack on Deakin over its inability to guarantee parking spaces while charging more than $400 for annual permits.
This year, staff and student residence permits will be available from 16 February and valid from 1 March but students will not be able to buy permits until 23 March and they won’t be valid until 1 April. They will be valid until February 28 next year, almost four months after end-of-year exams.
But students, facing a $250 charge, will have a full month of $6 a day parking – up to $120 or half their yearly charge – to deal with in March.
The two-stage permit system, aimed at easing congestion with new students at the university, has outraged staff and students alike.
The month-long delay was described as “just a money-grabbing exercise” targeting the most vulnerable people at the university – the “poor 18-year-old first year students” – by staff at Deakin.
“As O week starts on 2 March and classes from 9 March, this means students will need to purchase hourly or daily permits for three to four weeks,” one staffer told the Independent on condition of anonymity.
“We are all pretty angry over the latest increase for staff – yearly permits are now $440 after a 10 per cent increase – but we are absolutely disgusted about the changes affecting our students.
“We think it’s a blatant money-grabbing exercise and that Deakin is deliberately disadvantaging our students.
“This is the first time this has happened. Student permits have always been valid from the time O Week starts – in fact parking used to be free during O-Week.
Deakin University Student Association could not be contacted for comment.
Further comment from Deakin was unavailable.
