by Adam Cederburg
Antoinette Bradley/The Current
For students at Longview, the simple act of finding a parking spot before class can be very stressful. If students are not fortunate enough to get one of those prime parking spots the front lots, they are forced to park what feels like half a mile away, in what the students refer to as “the back parking lot.”
To park here is a huge inconvenience. If a student is short on time, chances are they are guaranteed to be late to class if unable to park in one of the front parking lots.
This has happened to Sarah Hughes, who took two semesters at the Longview campus. She attended classes from 10 a.m. – 1 p.s. Hughes had one of the most unfortunate results of the parking. “The very first day of class I was very late, and I ended up dropping that class because there was absolutely no parking at that time,” she said.
Judith Chapman, another student at Longview, had similar sentiments, and she, too, has experienced the embarrassment of walking into class late, through no fault of her own. “It’s embarrassing, especially when I would have been ten minutes early,” Chapman said.
Both students said they believe things that can be done to improve the parking situation for the students, and make it more convenient.
“I think the most cost-effective way to resolve the parking issue is to remove the tiers between the lots. That alone would give four-to-six more rows of parking available to the students,” Chapman said. She also feels that the faculty have far too much parking allocated to them. “Faculty parking is never full. Reduce the size of their parking lots,” she said.”
Hughes felt the same way. “I think they could use the big open space at the front for more parking,” she said. Hughes also a shuttle system from the back parking lot.”
So, is there enough parking at the Longview Campus? The answers appears to be no, there is not. There does seem to be hope that the situation could improve in the future. It is undoubtedly a major problem, and inconvenience for the students currently attending Longview, and the staff needs to take notice and resolve the problem.
September 3, 2010 at 7:09 am
Okay, I can get the idea that the disparity between the lack of student space and the abundance of faculty space should be addressed. But honestly, you have some moxie saying that a student who can’t get to class on time because they couldn’t find a parking space isn’t at fault for being late. In the real world you have to plan ahead for things like traffic and lack of parking in order to get to your job.
September 3, 2010 at 11:29 am
I agree, being late shouldn’t be the reason to improve parking. However, I understand that finding out that you need to be very, very early the hard way–being late on your first day of class–isn’t the best situation. I think that the parking should be improved for more reasons than just time-based situations. The worst part of having to walk extremely far isn’t ALWAYS an issue, but in a lot of cases it is–the weather. Walking far is fine, it’s great exercise, but I disagree that we have to be put through that when it is either pouring down rain or ten degrees outside. It not only gives everyone a bad start to their day, but it isn’t very healthy either. I’d rather not be sick!
September 6, 2010 at 8:23 pm
What makes me mad is that both here and at UCM the school won’t consider the obvious solution. A parking garage, 2-4 stories. This saves space, and improves the walking distance. I wouldn’t mind paying 2.50 to park for the day.
October 20, 2010 at 1:49 pm
We know there is a problem, and has been for at least 2-3 years. While i agree that parking is not a very reasonable excuse and that a student should plan ahead for scarce parking, sometimes that is the case; maybe more than you would think. I myself have either skipped a class, or been late because of the lack of parking. On one side you say that “well you should have left your house a little earlier, right?” Well yes but is it also the same level of ridiculousness that a school offering education to students trying to better their lives does not have enough parking to accomodate these students they are accepting ? The point being, we have recognized a problem and that it causes safety issues, health issues, and attendance issues. What can we do about it, though ? That is what I’m not hearing. The faculty lot(s) are a little generous, I agree, but some of the other proposed ideas are just outrageous. A shuttle from the back lot by the rec center is impractical, so is the idea of removing the tiers from the existing parking lots. If we do either of those thats making the problem worse; we don’t need a construction area in our already over-crowded parking lots. A parking gargae may make sense for UCM, but not Longview. it’s not practical to for a college to pay for a 4-story parking garage. We, as students and willing faculty, need to take action. There are obviously sufficient resources and space on campus to improve the parking. I am proposing a one-day event where all the people who regularly park on the streets or in the apartment complex to feel free to park in the grass behind the white fences that surround longview. This will most certainly piss off the cross country team, but you can’t make everyone happy when you’re trying to get something from a bureaucracy. We will obviously have to think about traffic control and orgainization to our “lot”(I propose something very similar to the existing set up). But by doing this we are showing longview that there (1) is enough space to alter the parking (2) the approximate number of spaces needed to be added. (3) That this plan is agreed upon by the students, practical, and that attendance among other things will be improved.
February 15, 2011 at 10:47 am
worthwhile to bookmark, thanks
July 25, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Concerning “Faculty/Staff” parking…
First and foremost, the ‘staff’ parking area doubles as overflow handicapped parking. As a member of the ‘staff’ I rarely see any parking vacancies “out front” except in the handicapped designated spaces (the number of spaces allowed/set aside for handicapped persons is a percentage of available parking, and we don’t control those spaces – and staff can’t use those slots unless they are handicapped and have a permit – so when these slots are not being used, it makes it appear that there is an abundance of parking set aside for staff – which is not the case.) Our current policy allows handicapped parkers to park in any staff slot – even though we cannot reciprocate and park in a handicapped marked slot – adding to the parking problem, even though the handicapped slots are purposefully set up to minimize the need to walk long distances.
Today, for example, (on a Wednesday) I had to park in student parking in the 3rd tier of lot ‘B’ because staff parking was fully occupied at 9:30 a.m. There were several open slots available on that tier, even early in the day! In parking lot ‘B’ staff parking there were 8 ‘handicapped’ slots available and unused, but since I choose not to be ticketed or towed for parking in a handicapped slot I parked elsewhere.
Second …
While it may seem easy to say “build more parking”, or “how about a parking garage”, it is important to note that adding parking makes no sense if any parking is available (even if you need to walk to get to your class).
LV added an additional lot near the Business bldg. when the Cultural Arts center was built, and it did not seem to help parking much, even though it added slots. New Longview has added off-campus parking, but you still need to walk to get to class. As far as a PARKING GARAGE – the initial cost is only one issue – the other is the additional security needed for a parking garage structure (they always include an increase in crime, because it’s easier to hide in among parked cars, easier to break into cars, etc.)
If student were paying for parking, the parking fee could be used tin an effort to make changes to our parking lots and other improvements. Most students do not want to have to pay for parking like they have to at other (non-MCC) campuses.