SJSU parking struggles continue

The beginning of the school year at San José State has frustrated many students trying to find parking with the new enrollment of students with some begging for a new parking structure. 

There are 7,500 parking spots on campus serving the school population of over 32,000 people, according to the SJSU Parking Services webpage. 

Hayden Fullecido, a fourth-year design studies student, has not been the biggest fan of the parking situation. 

“I think that because of the giant influx of students, the parking situation that is usually already pretty bad at the start of the school year is now even worse,” Fullecido said. 

Fullecido drives to campus, with an hour-long commute from Burlingame. 

“Typically it doesn’t take me that long to find a parking spot since I’m constantly checking the parking lot fullness during my commute to see if I need to park somewhere else,” Fullecido said. “If I do find parking, it’s typically at the South Campus Garage which in my opinion typically has open spaces always.”

Spartan Safe is the official safety app of SJSU, with easy access to campus safety and contact services for emergency and non-emergency safety concerns. 

The app also features access to parking information to see parking garage capacities, according to the SJSU University Police webpage. 

Janice Martir, a third-year accounting student, carpools with other students to get to school. 

“I’ve noticed it’s been getting harder to find parking lately. Especially since I heard that this year the university admitted 8% more students than last year,” Martir said. “I was a little worried when I saw the email sent out about alternative parking options, so I knew parking was going to be more difficult this year.”

There are nearly 40,000 students enrolled at SJSU, with the highest enrollment for a single academic term in the university’s history, according to an Aug. 25 SJSU NewsCenter article.

An email was issued to students in August addressing the increased enrollment that provided alternative ways to commute to parking garages, according to an Aug. 14 campus wide email. 

Eric Cross, parking manager at SJSU, said the university is not planning on adding any additional parking at this time. 

“The university finalized what would be called their long range development plan, also known as the campus master plan,” Cross said. “I know it is adding significant square footage in academic space and housing that are planned long term for the campus but there isn’t any additional plans for any additional parking on the campus.”

The SJSU Campus Master Plan was published on Aug. 26, 2024 and included upgrades and improvements for the North and South Garage parking structure.

“I think building another parking garage would be a great idea,” Martir said. “Maybe they could take the opportunity to add more features like parking indicators or premium parking labels with more reserved spaces.”

Current parking permits the school offers for students are daily or hourly parking permits, student commuter permits, student housing permits and carpool permits, according to the SJSU Parking Services webpage. 

Disabled parking is also offered at all university parking structures. All persons, including with a disabled placard and license plate holders, are required to pay the parking fee or show a valid SJSU parking permit to park on campus disabled parking spaces, according to the SJSU Parking Services webpage. 

Cross said there is also a mandate for reducing greenhouse gases at the collegiate level that affects the potential of future parking structures. 

In the master plan there is a mobility hierarchy that focuses on the shift of human centered transportation systems such as bikes and micromobility and  public transportation.
The school provides resources for students to use the SmartPass Clipper card for unlimited VTA rides and other resources for students to travel via public transportation, according to the Transportation Solutions webpage.
However, many students had struggled to travel to school via the VTA bus system as the union workers went on strike for three weeks, according to a March 26 San José Spotlight article.
Cross said even on the highest traffic days, the school has available parking at South Campus Garage.

“The issue has been for many folks, it’s not necessarily where they want to park. The issue that we’re weighing here is the convenience of parking against the availability of parking,” Cross said. 

Cross said the South Campus Garage has not exceeded 60% capacity on an academic day and it just went to 60% this academic year. 

South Campus Garage provides an additional 1500 parking spaces to the school’s impacted parking inventory, according to an SJSU webpage. 

President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said the South Campus Garage parking structure is not full on peak days. 

“I have asked for more interrogation of what is happening. Is there another problem that we need to solve, whether it’s better support for the shuttles, another means to get from South Campus to the main campus. It’s not very far,” Teniente-Mason said.