As the uni­ver­sity con­tin­ues to make changes to its lot pro­ce­dures, many stu­dents are still find­ing it dif­fi­cult to avoid park­ing vio­la­tions.
Throughout cam­pus, stu­dents leav­ing classes are return­ing to find a bright yel­low enve­lope with a ticket tucked beneath the wiper blade on their car and secured in a wheel boot.

With ticket totals this semes­ter at approx­i­mately $58,775, stu­dents like sopho­more in pub­lic rela­tions Rebecca Berlin see fur­ther need in improv­ing the university’s park­ing pro­ce­dures. Berlin is one of many stu­dents on cam­pus who has felt dis­con­tent toward uni­ver­sity parking.

“I had many park­ing tick­ets when I first brought a car to school,” said Berlin.

Feeling unable to address her con­cerns toward receiv­ing numer­ous tick­ets, Berlin decided to just pay them. However, her deci­sion to pay them had come too late.

“I finally went in after sec­ond semes­ter to talk to some­one and pay them and they told me they had already been paid,” said Berlin.
One of her finan­cial schol­ar­ships had been deducted by the uni­ver­sity in order to pay for her park­ing violations.

“In turn, I had owed the school more money,” said Berlin.

Currently, the uni­ver­sity has 7,000 park­ing spaces for stu­dents. Department of Public Safety (DPS) Office Supervisor June Swanson says the most com­mon vio­la­tions are meter vio­la­tions, restricted park­ing and unreg­is­tered vehicles.

Swanson also men­tioned the num­ber of cita­tions had actu­ally been reduced by 60 per­cent over the past six years.

“This was accom­plished by sys­tem­at­i­cally mon­i­tor­ing all park­ing lots for com­pli­ance, bet­ter infor­ma­tion shar­ing, greater fair­ness and con­sis­tency in appeals,” said Swanson.

Recent changes in park­ing rules to lots 39 and 27 have decreased the num­ber of stu­dent spaces. Lot 27, out­side of FLITE library, now has fac­ulty spaces as well as metered spaces, as where it used to be a two hour free lot. Due to an increase of cus­tomers at the Rock Café, lot 39 rules have changed to accom­mo­date vis­i­tors to the din­ing hall seven days a week.

New media print­ing and pub­lish­ing major Michael Fleming sees a need for fur­ther atten­tion to be addressed toward pro­vid­ing suf­fi­cient park­ing. He said the con­struc­tion of a park­ing struc­ture may fur­ther reduce the num­ber of park­ing vio­la­tions on campus.

According to Director of Communications Marc Sheehan, the idea of con­struct­ing a park­ing struc­ture is sim­ply not eco­nom­i­cally possible.

“The pri­or­ity for build­ing projects is on edu­ca­tional facil­i­ties. Even an essen­tial project such as the Optometry Building took many years to see through to fruition. The eco­nom­ics behind a park­ing struc­ture would not make the project viable in the fore­see­able future,” said Sheehan.

Sheehan says there is a dif­fi­cult bal­ance between hav­ing suf­fi­cient park­ing near class­rooms and also mak­ing sure the cam­pus has suf­fi­cient green space and is safe for pedes­tri­ans. He said the uni­ver­sity will con­tinue to address the needs of stu­dents liv­ing on cam­pus and those who commute.

For stu­dents like senior Chris Fortney who do com­mute to class, the avail­abil­ity for park­ing spaces is a must. Fortney says find­ing avail­able park­ing on cam­pus even affects his deci­sion to attend classes.

“If I can’t find a spot within five min­utes of my class start­ing, I may choose to leave for that day,” said Fortney.

Though many stu­dents are hop­ing for changes in the future, Swanson says plans for a new stu­dent lot will not be avail­able next year.

“The only new lot for next year will be lot 41, which will be for patient park­ing in front of the Allied Health Building. Once con­struc­tion on the Optometry Building is com­plete, lot 33 will reopen for com­muter park­ing,” said Swanson.

As talks of insuf­fi­cient lot space and park­ing fees con­tin­ues across cam­pus, stu­dents hope to see changes come to light while it is still an issue for them. n