On campus parking

Everyone has had to make that annoying phone call when trying to direct someone to park somewhere on campus. It generally follows this basic script on your end:

“That lot is full? Well there’s one just a few blocks down. Every single one of them is reserved? Then just park at a meter for the night. Oh, you don’t have twenty bucks in change? Well that’s too bad. What? You found a garage? Go in there! No parking between 2:00am and 6:00am? Who needs those spots cleared and reserved between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.? Is there some nocturnal persons convention happening that I didn’t know about?”

Sadly enough, the abysmal lack of parking on campus forces a lot of people to chance it. The garages on 5th and John even have those infamous “NO PARKING BETWEEN 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.” signs.

The point is that we shouldn’t have to chance it, especially if we’re only looking for a spot close to a hall to get to an exam on time or be at an on-campus job. There are several new construction projects going on all over campus and absolutely 0 percent of them are designated to public parking.

When you have a 7 p.m. exam at a hall too far away or at an awkward time for the buses and you have to drive you are more than likely out of luck. All the spots are for some reason reserved 24 hours a day for people who probably don’t even use them 12. Sometimes it isn’t the lack of physical parking, but the lack of legally available parking because of the extreme and extensive restrictions. For as much money as we put into this campus shouldn’t we be able to feel confident of where we leave our vehicle?

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Tom Fitzpatrick

Senior in LAS