The Vanguard Parking Problem

For several years now, countless Vanguard students patrol the parking lots looking for an open space, only to not find one until 10, 20, or even 30 minutes later. Many students have been late to class or to their on-campus jobs due to the lack of parking spaces on campus. Additionally, many students, including myself, have missed out on gaining chapel credits because we cannot find a space in time before chapel starts.

Students need to purchase a parking permit to use the parking lots, and not being able to find a parking space is infuriating to some, especially after paying for a permit to use the lots on campus. It could be an easy process to have reserved parking spaces on campus for students who have a parking permit. Simply having each parking space correspond to the four digits of numbers on a parking permit could solve the problem of students driving up and down the lots waiting for another car to leave a spot.

At other universities across the United States, there are separate parking lots for commuters, faculty, and dorm residents. This is another possible solution to the parking problem on this campus, as the first come first serve method currently in place really leaves a lot of commuters out of luck if they arrive anywhere after 9 A.M.

In my own experience as a commuter, I arrived on campus at 10:00 A.M., with a class at 10:30 A.M. I was not able to find parking until 11:00 A.M., forcing me to arrive 30 minutes late to class because there were no available parking spaces. I know that I am not alone in this and that many commuters who arrive on Campus struggle to find adequate parking before their class begins.  The current situation with parking, especially for commuter students, is really unfavorable. All the while, there seem to be clear and easy solutions to solve this dilemma that plagues countless students who live off campus.

In a recent survey conducted with over 35 students participating, 93% said that they had trouble with parking on campus. Some students even had further comments that described their experience. “It’s really hard to find parking during the day. I can never leave campus from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M.” One student said. Another commented, “Worrying about parking shouldn’t be the deciding factor of whether or not I go out.” Finally, another student said, “I used to be a commuter and had to park at the fairgrounds, it often made me late.”

There are numerous solutions to this problem, however, nothing seems to be done to fix the issue, even though it seems to get worse and worse with every semester.

Addendum: SGA has stated that they are currently figuring out solutions to fix this issue, and have been gradually trying to free up more parking spaces over the years. Currently, SGA has stated that they freed up 12 parking spaces in the Catalina lot, and have opened up spaces for motorcycles.