In January 2017, California Lutheran University installed four car charging stations for electric vehicles in between Mt. Clef Hall and the Student Union Building. The stations were put in place for all staff, faculty and students to use.

To utilize the stations, one must get an additional parking permit, similar to the parking stickers that all cars on campus have, from the Campus Safety office.

“Campus Safety has issued 12 parking permits and access cards.  The breakdown of users is: five commuter students, five staff/faculty and two resident students. My staff has reported that the four electric vehicle parking spaces are often at capacity throughout the day,” said David Hilke, director of Campus Safety, in an email interview.

According to Mark Jacobsen, director of facilities management, the process of bringing the car stations to campus was not incredibly difficult, mostly due to the fact that they were primarily funded by a grant from Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (VCAPCD).

“We were approached by the VCAPCD about the availability of grant funding for the installation of the electric vehicle charging stations,” Jacobsen said. “We applied for grant about six months prior to getting approval. The process of installation went pretty quickly; the total was about a week, and then they were ready for use.”

The initial location for the charging stations was going to be near the Samuelson Aquatic Center in order to have them placed in a typically less occupied area, spread out the parking on campus and encourage people to park on that side of campus. The location was later moved, however, in order to be in a more central location.

“I think that the charging stations are a nice addition to the campus,” Hilke said. “Faculty, staff and students that own electric vehicles are very excited to have the charging stations on campus.  We have received nothing but positive feedback from the users.”

North Carolina native and Cal Lutheran junior Marvin Rue has positive emotions toward the stations.

“Where I am from we don’t have these yet or anything like them,” Rue said. “I walk past them every day on my way to work in the multicultural office in the student union, and they’re pretty much always being used.”

Regarding the initial goals and purposes of installing the stations, Jacobsen said that the main goal of was to take advantage of grant funding. Another was to satisfy requests for electric vehicle charging stations that the school has gotten over the years.

As far as future car stations go, it is something that is not currently being considered but could be in upcoming years.

“The idea of putting in more depends on how popular they are,” Jacobsen said. “If there is a variety in the people using them and the numbers and interests increase over time, we might be looking into putting more in.”

Hilke said that he would love to see more car charging stations distributed throughout campus to show the university’s concern for the environment.

“Protecting the environment is very important to me, and I appreciate how much of an environmentally friendly effort it is of the school,” Rue said.

Krystal Rhaburn
Reporter