Parker Foreman
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Emanuel Garcia, an electronic systems engineering junior at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, walks from class through the South Texas sun, his clothes soaked with sweat. As he uses his key fob to remotely start his pickup truck in Lot 3, the AC begins to chill the interior.
With no shuttle in sight, Garcia doesn’t bother waiting for one.
“The shuttle has not been helpful; you never see it out there,” Garcia said. “Sometimes the shuttle is not worth waiting for. You wait, and it’s not there so you start walking, and then you see it when you are almost where you need to be.”
Garcia expressed his challenges with parking.
“It’s been a ride, a couple of issues if I’m being honest,” Garcia said. “My issue is that Lot 2 fills up so fast, and the parking permits for this year are $125 for a whole year. In the past, they used to be sold by semester. I feel like it would be a better option to build a parking garage.”
A&M-San Antonio is growing, and so is its need to provide parking. Since its founding in 2009, A&M-San Antonio has rapidly increased in size, continually adding facilities, students, staff and faculty.
“Parking is definitely on everyone’s mind right now,” said Cheron Kuykendall, program director for Parking and Transportation.
In total, A&M-San Antonio currently has nine parking lots. Seven of these cater to student commuters, and the other two lots are only available to faculty and staff. With a growing campus population, there is an increasing demand for parking.
Kevin Hernandez, a computer science junior at A&M-San Antonio, voiced his concerns about parking.
“This semester, I park in the City Lane, as it’s the most affordable,” Hernandez said “I don’t mind walking a bit, but what I find annoying is that in front of Lot 1, there is parking for City Lane commuters, but every time I go around there, I see Lot 1 commuters parked there.”
“It’s kind of irritating that when they try to help someone, they end up putting someone else to the side, and it affects everyone in the long term. No one really wins,” Hernandez said.
When discussing parking solutions, Hernandez said, “it’s hard to think of a solution.” “They need to consider everyone. It would require so much planning for everyone to be satisfied.”
What was once just the Madla Building and portables, A&M-San Antonio has ballooned into five academic buildings, two dorm halls, Patriots’ Casa, a recreation center and modular buildings that contain Southwest Preparatory High School and Young Jaguars, with construction on a softball field, the Educare building, the Public Health and Education Building.
A&M-San Antonio’s growth shows no sign of slowing down, and neither does its expanding need for parking and transportation-related solutions. The Parking and Transportation Department continues to work toward providing parking for commuters.
In fall 2025, Kuykendall said Parking and Transportation sold 4,000 parking passes with only 3,200 available spots
“Not everyone is here on the same days and times, so we can stay in compliance with how many available spots we have,” Kuykendall said.“Understand that the college is growing, where is that going to expand? That’s currently a topic of discussion.”
There is no plan to expand the golf cart shuttle program due to budget concerns. There are also no plans to expand the shuttle program to city lane commuters. University Way is a public road under the jurisdiction of the city of San Antonio and is maintained by A&M-San Antonio, per an agreement between the two parties.
The parking paradox, according to students
“Last year is when I started having issues with parking,” said Hernandez. “The issue was that they gave an absurd amount of parking space to faculty and staff in Lot 1 and ended up with a lot of fines.”
Fines for not having a parking pass or not parking in the designated lot can start at $65 per incident before late fees.
According to a Q&A on Parking & Transportation’s website, individuals who receive four parking violation tickets on the same vehicle are subject to having their vehicle towed or immobilized. Additionally, students with outstanding parking tickets who are graduating may have their degree withheld until the fine is paid
“This semester, I park in the City Lane, as it’s the most affordable,” Hernandez said “I don’t mind walking a bit, but what I find annoying is that in front of Lot 1, there is parking for City Lane commuters, but every time I go around there, I see Lot 1 commuters parked there.”
“It’s kind of irritating that when they try to help someone, they end up putting someone else to the side, and it affects everyone in the long term. No one really wins,” Hernandez said.
When discussing parking solutions, Hernandez said, “it’s hard to think of a solution.” “They need to consider everyone. It would require so much planning for everyone to be satisfied.”
A&M-San Antonio’s Parking and Transportation Department continues to work toward providing parking for commuters.
Parking & Transportation seeks solutions
“We are in communications with VIA to have them come back out here; we are in talks to have them bring back a route that will definitely help commuters,” said Kuykendall.
Prior to October 2022, San Antonio’s VIA operated a bus route that dropped off directly at A&M-San Antonio. This bus was available to the public and cost the same fare as any other VIA bus around San Antonio. In October 2022, VIA stopped offering the route in exchange for the ride-sharing system known as VIA Link.
VIA Link is the ride-sharing service offered by VIA Metropolitan Transit. Users meet with their driver at an assigned pickup location or main transport point and ride to their destination. The service starts at $1.30 to book a ride. VIA Link offers student plans for most San Antonio colleges and universities.
VIA Link is offered in five service zones in San Antonio. These service regions include Madla, Downtown, Mainland, Randolph, and Naco Pass. Service times vary by region. VIA Link offers free transfers to bus routes in order to cover unsupported areas.
Students and staff have expressed anxiety about the new hospital on campus and how it will affect commuters.
When asked about the possibility of ambulances and emergency services using Jaguar Parkway and University Way, Kuykendall said that they haven’t discussed possibilities or solutions for EMS services.
“If they do end up using the road, we will have to find a solution that makes it easier for us to travel, or maybe there is a separate entrance for EMS. We haven’t discussed that yet with the hospital,” Kuykendall said.
The parking paradox, according to faculty
“As the institution grows, students and the faculty and staff that they bring on need a place to park,” said Danny Malone, assistant professor of sociology at A&M-San Antonio.
“A&M-San Antonio is a young institution growing very fast. In sociology, we have a term called anomie coined by Emile Durkheim, the father of sociology.”
Malone connected the parking paradox with his field of study.
“When norms are not established and there is rapid social change, people don’t always know what to do. I like to use the example of someone who did not come from money winning the lottery. When they have this rapid change in their life, they often do not know what to do.”
Malone began teaching in fall 2025. Previously, Malone was a faculty member at Coker University and Coastal Carolina University.
Brian Brantley, associate professor of communications at A&M-San Antonio shared his own concerns about campus parking.
“I get here early in the morning so I have my pick,” Brantley said. “Saying that, I do wish we had more of a dedicated faculty parking lot.”
Brantley says that he understands the university’s rapid growth.
“The university is growing so quickly, and it is not easy to figure out where to put everyone,” Brantley said.
Expressing his concern with the amount of parking spaces, Brantley continued.
“It does seem like a lot of the parking spaces that were formerly for staff, faculty and visitors have been turned into pay-by-the-hour spaces. They are managed by the same company that runs airport parking.” ParkMobile manages pay-by-the-hour parking at A&M-San Antonio.
End of the road: The parking garage proposal
A parking garage would also give much-needed shade to commuters returning to their cars after a day of classes or work.
Garcia, the electronic systems engineering junior who walks through the South Texas sun to Lot 3, doesn’t have his pickup truck anymore. Now, without a remote start, the reward at the end of his long journey is a searing blast of stale air from his idle car.
“You get in your car and it’s like you’re burning alive,” Garcia said.
Both students and faculty, when asked about the parking paradox, have referenced a solution, the hypothetical A&M-San Antonio parking garage.
The University of Texas at San Antonio operates 3 parking garages available to students and faculty. San Antonio College operates one in the middle of its campus.
“My solution would be to build a parking garage; it would be an investment in the future,” said Brantley.
A&M-San Antonio has no plans to build a parking garage, citing budget concerns. According to Parking and Transportation, a parking garage on campus would cost $23 million.
Malone takes a more cautious approach.
“We shouldn’t put the cart before the horse, but I would not oppose it,” said Malone of a parking garage
“My first question would be where it would be, and my second would be who funds it.”
Malone said a parking garage could be a source of revenue for the school and provide students with structural protection from the elements.
“I think through diligent planning that could be something that happens, but it also has to go along with the trajectory and projections of student enrollment and things of that nature.”
