For Full Time Commuters, the price to register has increased yearly, from twenty-five dollars in 2013, to thirty, thirty-five, and forty dollars each following year

For the fourth consecutive year in a row, NJIT has increased the price of parking for commuters and residents alike.

With roughly eleven thousand students (undergrad and graduate students), the New Jersey Institute of Technology hosts a plethora of students who commute to and from the campus daily; roughly 70% of students.

Students voiced their opinions on the school’s unofficial Reddit page, /r/NJTech. It was here that students questioned if it is worth their time and money to register for parking at NJIT or scour Newark’s streets for available parking spaces.

Students also took note that not only is the price of parking increasing, but the amount of how much it increases is also rising.

Despite the prices rising for students, the amount paid by faculty and staff has remained consistent since 2015, when a new fee structure was implemented. Instead of paying a lump sum fee similar to students, NJIT employees will be paying roughly .4% from their annual salary towards the parking fees. According to NJIT’s online parking page, adjuncts, temporary and hourly employees will receive a fee of .4% of gross pay for every biweekly paycheck issued.

Being primarily a commuting school, NJIT recognized the need to increase the amount of parking spaces available. Their solution to this issue was to build a new parking deck on Summit Street. At the same time, NJIT closed several lots around the area.

Taking into account how many spaces available in the parking deck located on Wilsey Street – roughly 830 – and the numbers available from the new deck at approximately 982, NJIT students have close to 1.9k spots available to them throughout the year.

Students have already recognized the lack of enough spaces and question the need for parking to increase. Without a public statement from NJIT explaining the reasoning behind the consistent price increases, many are left to assume what they can about the situation at hand.

Student Senate President, Mark Neubaur, shares the students’ sentiments and is accepting input from them on the situation. The total number of students registered for parking may not be known until sometime during the semester, but for many students the difficulty of finding consistent parking throughout the day is a difficult feat in itself.