Of all the competitive sports at Elizabethtown College, none inspire the level of intense emotions and aggressive commentary as trying to park one’s car. That may sound like a joke, but the parking situation at Etown has grown progressively worse in the last few years.
Student discontent has grown proportionally, lamenting over a lack of available spaces.
The school’s main counter to this is that there isn’t a lack of available spaces, but a lack of “convenient spaces.” This implies that there is a sense of entitlement coming from the student body, when in reality it may be more nuanced than that.
“If we could all park by our respective dorm lots instead of separating lots by grade year, I think that would be beneficial. For example, only juniors and seniors are allowed in the Schlosser loop, but Schlosser is mainly occupied by first and second years,” sophomore Kayli Hose said.
Beginning their first year, students have the ability to register their vehicle with the school. Normally, this would cost $100 a year for residential students and $50 for commuters. Only recently has that changed to be added as part of the comprehensive fee.
The school’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about parking explains that this fee is to help pay for the “improvement and expansion of parking areas.” That same FAQ contains the official statement on parking availability: “parking is on a first come, first served basis, but finding a parking spot on campus is usually not a challenge. Occasional special events can make parking spaces more difficult to find.”
Nevertheless, this continues to impact both resident students and commuters.
Lexi Orzechowski is a junior social work major and has been commuting to school from Lancaster, Pa. since her first year. She has been vocal in the past about her disappointment with the parking situation on campus, and it has not gotten better.
“The College accepted too many students, and now there’s a lack of spots, so they ticket people and make money off not having enough parking spots. Meanwhile, the commuters who use their cars every day are forced to park the farthest, while the residents who may not use their cars for days have the closest parking,” Orzechowski said.
Here, Orzechowski is highlighting a gap between residential students and commuters, an issue we often see, but here exacerbated by the parking circumstances.
When speaking on how the issue has affected her personally, Orzechowski said, “sometimes if there’s traffic, I’m late to class because it takes me 10 minutes just to walk there if I have to go to a back lot. It makes me feel like I don’t belong.”
The average ticket for parking in a space you don’t have access to is $20. Students can appeal these tickets, but many students spoken to had their appeals rejected.
The Parking Violation Appeal form is on Jayweb and needs to be completed within five days of the ticket being issued. The Board that assesses the appeals is not only comprised of faculty and staff, but student representation as well.
Students who receive a $20 ticket have a third option instead of paying directly or appealing: donating to the Blue Jay Pantry. Starting last year, the pantry began accepting a minimum of essential supplies in return for having tickets waived.
The issue of parking availability has reached new heights this year as the class of 2027 is the largest admitted class since 2009. Etown won’t be admitting more than that in the coming years, so we will have to wait to see if that improves students’ concerns.
