Parking on this campus has been an issue for quite some time now and the restrictions on certain parking areas doesn’t make things any better. Due to the newly built dorms in Alumni and Elm, parking spots were compromised, leaving North and the Townhouses with the abundant amount of parking.

What does that mean for students who don’t live in North or the Townhouses? Well that means try to find a way to enjoy the commute to your dorm because the walk will be something you don’t always want to endure. If you want to endure it at all.

That leaves the overnight parking issue. There are a couple of lots that could be useful in the fight for parking. Those lots include the one at Goldstein fitness center and the one that goes along the hill towards OSA and Financial Aid. We can identify them as lots H and L.

I know that these restrictions are placed most likely for security reasons and there is no other reason better than the safety of students, but because of these restriction students take it upon themselves to find creative alternative ways to find parking. Some students help themselves to handicap spots knowing that they’re not supposed to and creating spots in open spaces when there isn’t supposed to be a spot there at all.

That then leads to the accumulation of tickets and no student wants to spend extra money if they don’t have to, especially when college can be the financial strain that it is. These parking restrictions could be a little less strict so that students have more flexibility and can start reducing those the amount of tickets that end up on their windshield.

Students in Alumni and Elm would know that when it’s time to find parking their commute shouldn’t be that much of a hassle and hopefully wouldn’t have to think about walking down from the townhouses. That goes for the students in Martin as well. It’s all about being convenient for the students and cutting down on illegal parking will lead to less illegal parking.

Students, and people in general, will always try to find ways to bend and stretch the law to make it fit for them and that same mentality is being applied here. Students will always find a way to find the light in the dark with the parking situations and they may not always go about it the right way. Why allow that when all that can be changed is a couple of more parking spots.