Fullerton College recently added 44 new electric vehicle charging ports in the parking structure, bringing the total on campus to 50. The charging ports are open to students, faculty & staff, and members of the surrounding community.

One potential concern is that the already limited parking will be further affected by community members using the ports, as student demand is increasing with the school offering more in-person classes.

Ruth Prepares, a sophomore business administration major, said, “I think parking is pretty ok. I get here pretty early in the morning, but I do have some friends that are always complaining that, oh, I had to get to the second floor, I had to get to the third floor. So I’m pretty sure that it’s going to get more crowded as the semester progresses.”

Tyler Deacy, interim director of sustainability for the college, addressed the parking concerns. “I have seen a ton of electric cars out in other spots, so I assume that when we get double the capacity a lot of the cars that are on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th floor of the structure and out in the parking lots are just going to end up parking in the new ones.”

Another concern is how it will affect the school’s budget. “We purchased the chargers up front, and the electric company, SCE, paid for the installation of the grid updates and things like that,” said Deacy. “It’s part of their program that they do that for you if you buy the chargers.”

Deacy explained in more detail that the school was able to effectively purchase them without causing problems with the school’s budget. “Then we were able to leverage a rebate after the fact to get some of the money back for the original purchase, so we got them relatively cheap comparatively to buying them outright.”

Although it didn’t largely impact the school budget and is a move towards a greener campus, it remains to be seen whether the charging ports will be more beneficial to the students and faculty or the broader Fullerton community.