Is there any way to petition the school, or apply any legal pressure?

[Unregistered]

I will begin first by giving some background. I am a student currently enrolled at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. For the past three years I have, for both personal as well as employment reasons, needed to bring my car to school with me. (I am a resident of Poughkeepsie, NY). My school requires that all students who wish to bring their cars to the campus have a parking permit. There are day permits for commuter students and teachers, as well as Day/Night permits for those students who live on campus. The first year I applied for one of these permits, the cost was $590. The second year it went up to $640, and this year it is $690. Now I understand that parking is limited, however there are 4 large parking garages, and approximately 4 parking lots of varying sizes available to all who park on campus. Two of these parking garages are closed down and emptied every night. Leaving the remaining 2 parking garages and all of the parking lots available for those whose cars stay overnight. Now, because of my dismay at the huge increase in price, I decided to call the local apartments and find out how much residential parking costs. Residential parking is free to those whose cars are registered and insured in Boston. As I said previously, I understand parking is limited and Northeastern is a large school, however, the amount of available parking still exceeds the number of cars using it, to the extent that the 2 overnight parking garages are open to the public for a fee and the other two are only open during the day. I also understand that there are certain maintenance costs that go along with all of these parking facilities, however, the revenue generated by these permits easily far exceeds the cost of maintaining these facilites, personnel, and any insurance coverage. My question is there any way to petition the school, or apply any legal pressure to reduce the cost of these permits to a more reasonable level? I know that not all students who bring their cars necessarily need them, but there are many who do and it seems unfair to force them to pay such a high price for it when we already pay so much in tuition, room, and board. I would really appreciate any guidance that could be given on the subject since I have no experience with this type of thing. Thank you.

[Unregistered]

re: Is there any way to petition the school, or apply any legal pressure?

That is really a political question more than anything; the student assemby could act and could put pressure on officials, or subsidize. You may want to meet with top elected students as a first step.