Students at the University of Victoria have expressed anger and frustration after the Parking and Transportation department refused to issue partial refunds for annual parking passes.
An annual parking pass, accessed by thousands of students attending the post secondary institution, buys students one parking spot that can be used from September 1st, 2019 to ends on August 31st 2020.
It costs exactly $568.05 which the university says is a 73 per cent discounted rate amounting to $2.37 per day of parking. General parking on campus without a pass costs $9 per day.
However due to COVID-19 UVic, like all other schools and post secondary institutions in B.C., shut down most on-campus services in mid-March and switched to online courses. As a result, parking on campus is now free, rendering the purchased annual passes invalid and worthless.
When asked for a refund for the value of the pass for the remaining five and a half months of the year — which amounts to approximately $250 — the university’s Parking Services department tells students that because of the discount received at the time of the purchase, no refund will be provided.
“I had a mechanical engineering co-op lined up for the summer to earn enough funding to pay for my final two semesters at UVic,” said 5th year Mechanical Engineering student Aaron Elsser in an emailed statement to Victoria Buzz.
“Unfortunately the internship was cancelled due to the virus and now UVic refusing to refund my parking pass is just rubbing salt into the wounds.”
Elsser has been studying at UVic since 2016 and used savings, parental support and internships to pay for his first three years. Now, he relies on summer jobs, student loans, scholarships, and bursaries to get by.
Refunds have been issued by other institutions
Another UVic student, who has requested to remain anonymous, points out that the discount originally offered by the university no longer holds true if students are not given a refund for the amount of time they cannot use the parking pass for.
“We were only able to use it effectively for 6.5 out of the 12 months that it was purchased for, this would mean that permit holders paid $87 a month rather than the $47 a month originally agreed upon,” they said in an email to Victoria Buzz.
They also shared positive stories of how other universities like Vancouver Island University and the University of British Columbia have treated the issue of parking pass refunds.
VIU has taken specific steps to modify their parking pass refund policy in light of financial strains put on students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students at that institution can request to cancel their parking permits by April 30th. Once cancelled, refunds will be pro-rated based on the number of days remaining on individual permits, retroactive to March 13th.
At both the Vancouver and Okanagan UBC campuses, the parking department is contacting individual permit holders who have prepaid for parking permits to voluntarily issue them a refund or credit.
In stark contrast, UVic parking services is not reaching out to permit holders to let them know about the current policy and that there will be no refunds — students are expected to find out themselves.
“It has already been quite stressful dealing with the transition to online courses in the middle of the semester and UVic has constantly been saying we are all in this together and that they are coming up with ways to financially assist students during this time,” says the student who requested anonymity.
“Reimbursing students (and other permit holders) for a parking service that has been cancelled is an obvious way to assist students financially.”
UVic’s response
When asked about students’ concerns and financial stress being compounded by the lack of this (approximately) $250 refund, a UVic spokesperson reiterated that the annual parking pass being offered at a discounted rate means no portion of the fee will be refunded.
“University staff have followed up personally with any individual who has inquired about the status of parking permits at UVic. We appreciate that people have been patient and understanding as the university works through the many decisions it has to make,” the administration said in an emailed statement to Victoria Buzz.
They also stated that each post-secondary institution has differences in their parking permit structures and policies and makes their own decisions, when told about initiatives taken by VIU and UBC.
The university administration did not directly comment on whether or not the original discount has been honoured, given the circumstances of the parking passes being effectively nullified due to early campus closure amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an announcement earlier today, Prime Minister Trudeau announced a new $1,250/month grant for post-secondary students in Canada after many expressed concerns about lack of summer jobs that they would otherwise rely on.
Students are by and large not eligible for the $2,000/month CERB or Employment Insurance.
Financial stress has therefore weighed heavy among many students during this pandemic, which is also a factor in the frustration directed at UVic’s parking policies.
“UVic, especially when dealing with parking, has been notoriously greedy at the expense of students in my experience. I am not surprised by the lack of refunds but rather just disappointed and enraged,” added Aaron Elsser.
