| OPINION
| SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
Editorial/Our View
Lots of Trouble
The university should address
the lack of parking spaces for students
When students drive to campus every day,
they want to start their day off in good moods. They usually do
this by listening to music, talking on the phone or drinking their
morning coffee. As they pull into a parking lot near their first
class, everything appears to be going great. This feeling soon dissipates
as rage takes over with profanities spewing from their mouths as
they come to a realization that, once again, there are no available
spots in their lot or any others on campus. The university should
seek to alleviate this by providing a plan for more parking on campus.
Physical Plant Director Jeff Johnson said that there are 10,327
total parking spots on campus and that 6,211 are for students. In
case there are suddenly more students in need of parking, there
is a contingency plan to add additional spaces, he said. With students
having to park on the street, these additional parking places need
to be added now rather than be a contingency plan.
The university does offer additional parking at the Maverick Stadium,
but students have to take shuttle buses from the lot to get to classes;
however, the shuttle buses are a great effort by the university
to provide more parking.
Recently, a few more parking spots have become available in lots
due to students dropping classes. But students should not have to
wait for a drop in attendance for parking spaces. The university
needs abundant parking that would allow students a choice of where
to park each day.
Approximately 25,000 students are enrolled this semester. Since
we are basically a commuter school, if only a fourth of these students
drove to campus there would not be enough parking spots for them
all.
Students need to be in classes, not circling parking lots in hopes
of finding a place that will not leave them hyperventilating in
fear of getting towed. The university should take into account the
needs for parking soon.
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