> Wouldn't it make sense that the university, that is charging the students all this money, ensure they have enough parking spaces to satisfy likely demand?
Does the school offer paid parking permits?
If so, why should students who don't need a parking spot (for whatever reason) need to subsidize those who do?
The high overall cost of tuition is a separate issue, and not one that can be solved by including even more services in the price.
For the same reason that lots of other things are subsidized, paid for even if you don't use them
- school buses and the like
- sporting equipment and facilities
- library
There's lots of services that schools provide, and charge everyone for, because they think it's good for the student body as a while.
Maybe a more controversial one... a school that supplies free transit to/from the local night scene, so that people don't drive to/from bars while intoxicated. It's better for everyone, including locals, for this to exist. However, the non-drinkers, the ones who are nowhere near the night scene, get no benefit from it; they pay for it anyways. And a lot of people would say that's good, and a lot would say it's bad.
Not useful to people that live on campus and don't need to travel off-site much.
> sporting equipment and facilities
Completely useless to a lot of people. I used the swimming pool in college exactly once, during the swimming class/test. I certainly didn't use the sports fields. I used the bowling alleys, but those were paid-to-use and not covered by the sports fee we had to pay.
> library
I certainly got a lot of benefit out of this. However, with the internet nowadays, I'm not sure I would if I was in school.
The point being, for many school services, everyone pays for them while only some people get a benefit. The scale of "some people" that benefit varies, but the concept doesn't.
Better air quality, lower carbon-cost of transport benefit you even if you don't use it. Similarly for sporting facilities in a state with any sponsoring of medical needs (I'm in UK).
For me Library was a primary place to work (prepaid heat and light!), and access books that couldn't be used online or cost too much to have a private copy (or for which it was more economic not to get one, like you only needed it for a day/week) - but that was a while back. I can't really see even the majority of course books being online though, maybe I'm wrong?
Does the school offer paid parking permits?
If so, why should students who don't need a parking spot (for whatever reason) need to subsidize those who do?
The high overall cost of tuition is a separate issue, and not one that can be solved by including even more services in the price.