The parking situation at Sacramento State has reached the boiling point once again as campus police have responded to seven fights since the beginning of the semester.

“Disputes over parking spaces do occur on the-campus,” said University Police Investigator John Hamrick. “Most cases, though,-are verbal in nature and don’t escalate in to violence.”

In some cases, violence is a result of the dispute.

“The ones that do (escalate) are usually fist fights among both parties,” Hamrick said.

Steve Brewster, a junior at Sac State, said that although he did not know anyone who actually had fought over a parking space it did not surprise him.

“I personally don’t have to fight the rush for a spot because I carpool and leave my house two hours early, but it’s frustrating to not be able to find a spot when you pay a ridiculously high amount for your parking pass,” Brewster said.

Brewster also said that even though he arrives to school significantly early, he still parks on the fifth floor of the parking garage.

Manager of University Transportation and Parking Services, Nancy Fox, said there are more than enough spots for students to park with 8,129 spaces for students and 1,813 for staff.

“There is a parking space on campus for everyone who wishes to park,” Fox said. “When people talk about not having enough parking on campus, they are really talking about having convenient and close-to-buildings parking for everyone.”

Fox also said that about “19,000 student parking permits were sold in spring 2004.”

Hamrick said that most fights occur because students are pressed for time.

“One common trend that we see-from these cases is that persons driving to campus are usually pressed for time and have not allowed sufficient time to locate a space,” Hamrick said.

Sophomore Jamie Lucia said that she gets annoyed with the high cost of parking on campus, but thinks that people who waste time fighting over a spot are really just making a bad situation worse.

“It’s totally lame that you have to pay $110 for a pass and then have to spend 20 minutes just getting onto the main grounds,” Lucia said. “But if you sit there and yell over a spot, it’s not going to make you get to class any quicker.”

Lucia said that she feels that Sac State should only sell as many passes as there are spots, but understands that it is not as simple as that.

“When you think about it, people drop out and cut class, so there is some room to oversell, but over twice as many is kind of over doing it,” Lucia said.

Brewster believes selling less passes might make people realize that they are fortunate to have one.

“It could maybe cut the road rage a bit, and people might not fight quite as often,” he said.