USF’s Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) department has collected just over $25 million in parking pass sales since 2021.

PATS Director Scott Fox said the department has to generate enough revenue to cover its expenses.

“We’ve got to be a self-sustaining business,” he said.

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Parking pass sales

Leticia Andrade is a campus tour guide at USF. She said the first thing she warns prospective students about is parking and traffic on campus.

Andrade, a senior political science major, said she’s paid for a student parking pass every semester she’s been at USF.

“Our primary job is to get a degree and be a full-time student, but now that we’re having all these excess payments, that’s going to affect us on having to work more and then impacting our schoolwork,” she said.

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For the Tampa campus, pass prices for students range from $91 for a non-resident semester permit to $226 for a resident annual permit. 

The average yearly revenue from permits ranges between $7-9 million annually, according to data obtained through a public records request.  

For the 2023-24 fiscal year, PATS claimed $8.5 million in permit sales. Permit revenue numbers for the 2024-25 school year are not yet available as sales are still ongoing.

The pass sales – along with revenue made from citations – help cover the majority of the department’s expenses, according to Aaron Nichols, the director of communication and engagement for USF’s administrative services. 

Some of these include everyday operating expenses, facilities maintenance and the payment of debt incurred in building parking garages. The revenue also helps cover the salaries of PATS’ 96-person staff. 

Fox said the department acts as an “auxiliary,” meaning it doesn’t receive funding from Student Government or the President’s Office.

Projected expenses for the 2024-25 fiscal year are estimated to be around $14.8 million, according to Nichols. 

Fox said the cost to build and maintain parking has been increasing over the last couple years. However, he said the permit prices haven’t been raised for 11 years because the department is “efficient” at managing its budget. 

“I think that we’ve been really good at strategically doing more with less, and tightening our belts and managing our resources really well,” Fox said.

How many parking spots are on campus?

Andrade said she lives five minutes from campus but always has to get there 45 minutes early to find parking.

“I would say that probably is my biggest struggle being here as a USF student,” she said.

Though some students, like Andrade, might want additional parking structures, Nichols said permit rates would have to be increased to accommodate the costs.

Related: Appealing your USF parking ticket? Find out if it can be approved.

Fox said there are 20,761 spaces on campus, including both surface parking lots and garage spaces available to students, faculty and visitors.  

By the first week of school, the department had already sold 14,056 parking passes for this fall, according to Fox. In comparison, last fall semester 20,213 parking passes were sold.

Fox said if there was a one-to-one ratio of permits to spaces, then there’d be “lots of empty parking” since not everyone is on campus at the same time.

He said there’s plenty of parking on campus as is, but it might not be where students want to park.

“It’s no different than going to Publix or going to a movie,” he said. “The people who get there first get the prime parking, and the people who come in later get the secondary parking and the people who come in after that get pushed further away.”

How does this compare to other universities?

Students at Florida State University (FSU) pay a $8.90 fee in their tuition, making them eligible for a parking permit.

Fox said the permit “isn’t really free” since students have to pay for it with their fees. 

Richard Rind, director of FSU’s transportation and parking services, said he didn’t know why his university’s policy was built like that. 

He said it actually puts them at a disadvantage as the department typically operates under a “deficit” due to a lack of student permit sales.

The department still sees $3.6 million in parking revenue, excluding what the university collects from students’ transportation fees. 

Students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) need to buy a parking permit like those at USF do.

The university’s parking services department brings in around $6 million in annual revenue, according to data from a public records request.

Like USF, most of its revenue is from permit sales, according to spokeswoman Tanya Perry. She said UCF has some of the lowest rates in the state university system.

Perry said the regular annual permit for students costs approximately $90. This is around half the price USF students pay for a similar permit. 

Fox said he understands that  some might be uncomfortable with the price of student passes at USF, but said the cost to build well-maintained parking is escalating.

“I get that because I was a student and I worked two jobs and I knew what I had to sacrifice in order to buy something else,” he said. “I may be a few decades away from that, but I certainly remember that feeling.”