Student parking spaces have never been abundant, but current construction projects on the southwest side of campus render spaces even harder to come by.
Additions to the School of Music and Dance and to the College of Education will extend onto what used to be permit parking lots for students and faculty. To compensate for the loss, the green behind the south face of the Knight Library has been converted temporarily into a lot for faculty and staff.
Even with a replacement lot, Department of Public Safety Parking and Transportation Manager Ken Boegli estimated that there were about 150 fewer spaces available on campus this fall. DPS also created a temporary 300-space lot on the old Williams Bakery site and made room for 80 spaces on the corner of 15th Avenue and Orchard Street. Both are open to students and staff.
“We’ve added a lot of extra parking to make up for the loss of on-campus parking,” said Boegli. “I know it’s not as convenient, but it’s all relative.” For example, he said, “if you were walking to Villard or Allen Hall, the distance from the old parking lot would be the same as the distance from the Williams’ Bakery parking lot.”
Boegli expressed hope that the parking garage being built under the new College of Education wing would help the parking problem. The underground lot, due to be completed in the summer of 2009, will have space for more than 300 cars.
Elaine Jones, assistant dean at the College of Education, set up an information table over the summer to forewarn students of the parking deficit.
“If I’d been a student who was here last year and thought there was still a parking lot, I’d want to know what was going on,” said Jones.
The information table seemed to have eased students into the temporary change. Educational studies major Kim Bryant said she used to park in the old tennis court lot but isn’t too frustrated with the change.
“I park in the lot by the Knight School of Law now,” she said. “I have to walk further, but it’s not too bad.”
Bryant said that she would rather park in one of the spaces by The Duck Store on the edge of campus, but “I don’t think I get here early enough to find a space.”
Boegli is sympathetic toward students’ parking needs, but he would rather see more people take the bus or ride a bike than create more parking.
“We’re trying to encourage people to take alternative transportation,” he said. “All students get free bus passes and there are more than 4,000 bike spaces on campus.”
Boegli admitted that the bus is a student’s best bet, though, because the bike racks are likely to be as crammed as the parking lots on any given weekday.
“We spend all day banging our heads on the desks trying to think of ways to accommodate everyone,” he said. “We’re doing our best.”