in the Reng Student Union parking garage.
From the pricey tickets to the limited parking areas for students, parking on campus has become a hassle that needs to be addressed — especially with new colleges coming to campus and the gradual increase in enrollment numbers every year. It feels like every semester the parking situation worsens, and yet, there are no real changes made to fix it.
It’s a daily struggle for students to circle the parking lot searching for a vacant spot, to park and risk receiving a ticket or even make long treks across campus in severe weather conditions. It’s evident that the entire parking system needs to be reworked to accommodate the growing student population — so why is it not happening?
One of the biggest issues contributing to this frustration many students are feeling is the restrictive parking permit system. This system unfairly limits where students can park based on whether they live on or off campus.
For example, I live in University Hall and usually leave campus in the afternoon before I have a meeting in the Education/Communications building in the evening. I shouldn’t have to park at U-Hall, typically having to drive around the entire campus because of the entrance gate, and then have to walk across campus to the Education/Communication building when there’s a parking lot behind the building.
However, students who live in dorms or anywhere on campus should be the only ones allowed to park in those parking lots because those in the residence halls deserve to have those nearby spaces.
This is a huge issue during the Spring semester, especially lately due to dangerously low temperatures. Making students walk across campus from wherever they live to wherever they have class is unsafe for them and many don’t want to make that walk because of it.
This brings me to my next point, many of the existing parking lots need to be expanded.
The visitor parking at the North Park Quads barely has any spaces and it’s in the most populated area of campus. Same with the LLCs. There’s hardly any visitor parking in those areas and it’s not like students can park at the Convocation Center because if there’s a basketball game, students have to park at the baseball field if they don’t have a pass.
Students can’t park at the Reng Student Union parking garage either, without getting a ticket, unless it is after 5 in the afternoon and before 8 in the morning. On some occasions, I’ve needed to run into the Student Union for something yet was worried about getting a ticket if I didn’t pay or for being in a spot I wasn’t supposed to be in.
With the record number of first-year enrollment, parking needs an upgrade. More students should mean more parking, preferably free. However, with the new buildings coming to campus, that removes space for more parking for students and faculty.
This includes the new Windgate building being built. Where it’s going, there used to be a large parking lot for students to use but instead of parking, the campus now gets a new fine arts building.
We pay to go to this school. We should be able to park where we want, when we want without worrying about getting hit with a hefty fine for college student
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