“You know, they said the move to D1 was going to be hard, but I didn’t know D1 football fields would be regulation concrete,” one student said.
Photo by: Stephen Lightfoot
UCSD will break ground on the new RIMAC Parking Structure next week; a plan that is projected to add 3,000 parking spots, but will take away UCSD’s largest field which is currently used for Commencement, Sun God Festival, and sporting events.
According to the Chancellor’s office, the plan was created after public outcry about construction taking away badly needed parking on campus. Khosla has assured confidence that other areas of campus can accommodate the displaced events and requested that students stop criticizing him for making decisions that negatively affect the student experience.
“I spent six hours looking for student parking during Summer Session One finals week and I ended up missing all of my finals and failing all of my summer classes, which was a waste of money,” said Rachel Berger, a third-year student from Marshall College. “In hindsight, a $65 parking ticket to park in an empty ‘A’ lot every day would have been less expensive than paying for a class I didn’t attend.”
What was once RIMAC Field will be an eight-story concrete parking garage with over 3,000 parking spots for students and faculty when completed. In order to pay for the new parking structure, tuition will be raised $1,000 per student and parking permits will increase by $150 each. Visitor parking permits will be raised to $10 an hour. Transportation Services Director Josh Kavanagh stated that he has faith this will be enough to push students into taking alternative modes of transportation to school and to fund the construction of RIMAC Parking Structure, in addition to any future projects that “the students probably want.”
“Parking is so unaffordable at UCSD,” ASUCSD VP Campus Affairs Daron Woods said. “Transportation Services is making it too expensive for students to park on campus and is deliberately outpricing low income students from being able to park and attend their classes. I hope we will be able to negotiate a permit fee decrease and prevent meaningless construction projects from happening in the future.” Woods proceeded to walk away to the Regents shuttle, shaking his head and sobbing quietly.
Khosla said that commencement will “hopefully fit in Muir Field.” He plans to add viewing stations in lecture halls, so families don’t have to wait in the limited seating for their relatives to graduate.
ASCE announced that this year’s Sun God Festival will be held in Price Center Ballroom West.
“Since UC San Diego takes pride in its students’ abilities to prioritize their studies over frivolous things such as a consistent social life and quality student lifestyle, I expect the change in venue will be able to accommodate every single student that wishes to attend Sun God Festival, while saving money and space,” Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Life Patty Mahaffey said in response to the venue change. “Besides, I get paid whether or not UCSD gets called socially dead.”
The parking structure will be completed in Fall of 2025 when students are assured it will be too late to house displaced parking from other construction on campus that is scheduled to be completed in the next two years. However, Chancellor Khosla states with confidence that he will find more “construction projects that probably help somebody, I don’t know” to obstruct parking and keep the new RIMAC parking structure from becoming unnecessary.
Ethan Edward Coston is a third-year Political Science Major from Muir College. He is the current Web Editor and website creator.
