Most of us have probably heard or observed that there has been a decent amount of concern over parking restrictions for students on campus. The restrictions are frustrating for everyone involved, especially in that moment when you’re walking to your car and from 20 feet away you can already see that angry orange envelope stuck in your wiper blades.
If I write nothing else meaningful and important in this article, let there be at least one thing: every student deserves to feel safe on campus. That goes for any student on any campus, regardless of age, gender, race or sexual orientation, and regardless of whether they live on campus or commute. As a commuter student, I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated with this parking issue. Not only are the current parking restrictions inconvenient, but more importantly, they’re also unsafe.
I’m quite peeved by the fact that these parking policies seem to assume that commuters have no nightlife on campus. And really, how can we? We can’t park in the Church of the Brethren lot on weekends, and our only other options are the Leffler Chapel lot and Brown lot, both of which are located a considerable distance away from any dormitory or public building. If we’re coming to campus for an evening event, like a dance or a club meeting, or if we’re just coming to hang out with friends, we have to travel – on foot, and probably alone – through a fairly dark and sparsely-populated area of campus. There have been many times when I’ve felt anxious and unsafe when having to make this dark journey from the parking lot to my destination on campus.
I know what some readers will say next: “You can call Campus Security and ask for an escort.” Yes, that is possible, in theory. But in reality, it’s not convenient. When I’m pulling into the parking lot to head to an event, meeting, or work, I usually don’t have time to wait for someone from security. Plus, that’s taking a resource away from the Security Office, a resource that might be put to better use elsewhere on campus. If every commuter student who comes on campus for a nightly event called for an escort, the Campus Security office would be empty.
Recent construction around Lake Placida has also posed many problems for commuter students at the College. Many of us are concerned about the speed bumps that were installed in the Leffler Chapel parking lot, which feel like they’re going to crack your axel even at five miles per hour. Last Friday morning, both lanes of College Avenue were obstructed by construction vehicles, which rendered traffic immobile, and the entrance to the Leffler Chapel parking lot was blocked. Traffic was backed up to Alpha Drive. This was the exact situation that led to my most recent parking ticket. I parked on Alpha Drive and was fined because I couldn’t get into Leffler. I could have waited who-knows-how-long for the construction vehicles to drive off, or I could have driven all the way to the other side of campus to park at the Church of the Brethren lot; but then, in either situation, I probably would have been an extra fifteen minutes late to my morning class, either by the time the road was cleared or by the time I could walk all the way back to Hoover from the lot. And after 4 p.m. on Friday, the Brethren lot is off limits to students, which means I would have had to go back and move my car again anyway.
Parking in Leffler Chapel lot is also occasionally limited. Any time there is a community or public event at the Chapel, first priority is given to the visitors and attendees of these events, which then limits commuter parking to the Young Center lot, an area not nearly large enough to accommodate the number of students who commute to school. It takes extra time to walk from the Young Center lot to a class, time that we aren’t prepared to allow and time that we just don’t have when commuting to class in the morning. You might say, “Leave earlier.” But how do we know when a problem will arise? How do we know of the days on which to leave earlier? We can’t always be prepared for every unexpected circumstance. Unlike residential students, our punctuality and attendance is directly affected by car trouble, traffic, construction, and many other situations that residential students don’t have to contend with on a daily basis.
Frankly, I think the majority of the policies are asinine, considering the multitude of displeasing circumstances. I’m now an assistant copy editor for the Etownian, and the Etownian office is in the BSC. Copy editors are required to work nightly hours. But even though the parking lot directly behind the BSC is virtually empty at dusk, I’m forbidden to park there because of my commuter status. Similarly, I’m an employee of the Office of Development and the High Library. The parking lot located behind these two buildings is also nearly empty at night, but even when I’m working a late shift, I’m restricted from parking there. Although I’m an employee of the College, I was denied application for a staff sticker that would allow me to park in these designated areas; so even when I took a proactive approach to try to park in conjunction with the policies, I was turned down. The bottom line for commuters is that the car has to go somewhere, and wherever we leave it, we have to eventually retrieve it. If we don’t feel secure in doing that, then something has to change. Let me be clear: I respect Security and the job that they do. I don’t blame the guy who’s scribbling down my make-and-model information onto the orange envelope. I blame the policies, and the policies need to be rewritten.