Campus parking ban frustrates students

“In the future, it will not be possible for students to get a parking permit for spaces on South Campus,” the message to students stated on 24th October.

The message came as a surprise to some of the students who, on short notice, have had to find a different transport solution to get to, and from, campus.

Student of English Tine Andersen says the car is necessary to get her everyday routine to work. She also wonders why there has been no dialogue on campus parking.

“One of the reasons I opted to study English out here was precisely because of the parking option. So it’s ironic that this happens,” says Tine Andersen, who lives in Kyndeløse Sydmark 65 km from the university and uses the parking spaces every day.

She says the car is vital for her, especially when she has to drive her 91-year-old grandmother to the doctor, and to do shopping etc. She says campus management’s decision was “very aggressive” and wonders whether alternative solutions to the area’s parking problems have been looked into.

Too many want to use their cars

According to South Campus management, the change is a result of too many students applying for parking permissions, and that the university has received complaints from instructors who can’t find parking spaces.

It is not because we’re lazy that we take the car, it is because it is necessary.

Martin Stensbøl, student

Faculty director Kristian Boye Petersen says that management had not considered other options than a student parking ban, and that it is already exceptional that University of Copenhagen’s south campus students can park there.

“We have a very small parking offering out here,” he says. “Given that we are the only campus at UCPH that offers spaces for students, it was obvious that abolishing student permits would be considered. And that’s what we did.”

Martin Stensbøl who studies Russian at the Faculty of Humanities on South Campus, says that he was at an open house event at university this summer and was told there that there was a parking option on campus.

It is for pragmatic reasons that Martin and his wife chose to switch their apartment in the nordvest district in Copenhagen with a house in Stenlille, 80 km away from South Campus, he says.

“It is not because we’re lazy that we take the car, it is because it is necessary,” says Martin Stensbøl.

Management: We are not a parking company

According to Martin Stensbøl and Tine Andersen, South Campus has a problem with parking spot ‘hustlers’; Rumours have it that some students get parking permissions and pass them on to others. If this is true, it would put additional pressure on the number of spaces available.

This is a research and education institution, not a parking company. So we will simply not spend any time on this.

Kristian Boye Petersen, Faculty Director

The hustler rumours can neither be confirmed nor be ruled out by management.

“I won’t deny this could be so,” says Faculty Director Kristian Boye Petersen, “but I have no documentation for it.”

Alternative solutions to the parking problem, such as a daily check-up on students’ parking permits, Kristian Boye Petersen says would be a poor prioritization of university resources.

“This is a research and education institution, not a parking company. So we will simply not spend any time on this.” he says.

Tine Andersen and Martin Stensbøl say that the University of Copenhagen neglects the minority of students who are not resident in the capital city.

“The University of Copenhagen plays up its diversity. This is why it seems strange that it does not want to relate to people who are at a different place in their lives. In my case I have worked for nine years and am about to start a family,” says Martin Stensbøl.

Students can park on campus until 1st January 2018.