The Parking Nightmare

Junior Hayley Keith explains her parking
ticket she received on 10/10/12.

Take a look around the parking lots on campus and you will notice one thing that each has in common. They are all completely full almost all of the time. This new lack of parking is due largely to the fact that there are a whole lot more students at Avila, and a good portion of those students are commuters. With the growing number of commuters there needs to be a growing number of parking spots, however this is not the case. Students often risk parking violations by parking on the streets or in spots marked for faculty or residents. The new resident hall has brought more cars to Avila with no new spaces for them. Campus police are cracking down about the parking violations and getting more serious about handing out tickets.

                Junior Hayley Keith is one of the students who has felt the wrath of the parking lot as she received a parking ticket on Wednesday the 10^th. She stated, “I parked over in Dallavis… they recently made regular parking into employee parking and I didn’t realize they were different since I’m so used to parking there.” Keith is just one of the many students who receive tickets daily for parking infractions. Hayley also went on to say “The parking situation wasn’t thought out well when they built the new dorm. They weren’t planning ahead, a new building should have meant new parking, it just makes sense.” Students who have class times after nine often struggle to find parking, a common trend among those students has been to arrive on campus early just for the sole purpose of finding themselves a decent spot, however this is causing less and less parking earlier and earlier in the day.

                Clearly the parking situation is causing a headache for more than just the students as employees too must struggle to find parking with only a limited number of spaces marked for them. Keith suggests “They should just build a parking garage, I’m sure they’re financially able to do so.” A parking garage would be an excellent problem solver to this growing problem of parking on campus; however it is unlikely that will happen. Whatever the solution the school needs to come up with one in a timely matter and apply it, before the problem gets worse.