Le Provocateur

Issue date: 5/3/04 Section: Viewpoint

It's 7:30 p.m. and I'm heading home from work. I turn the corner of Salisbury Street just enough to see the lights flooding over our campus. There's only one thing on my mind annoying me.

Am I going to get a spot?

This question is shared by many sophomores, juniors, and seniors who park a car at school. Whether living on the hill or in the valley, cars are making rounds in the parking lots, several times, to avoid parking illegally and often resulting in the dreadful walk from 'overflow'

The Department of Public Safety works hard to make sure that students are parking in their designated areas. According to Public Safety's Website, "The responsibility for finding a legal parking space rests on the vehicles operator/owner. Lack of space, mechanical problems, and inclement weather are not considered valid excuses for violation of parking regulations."

Well, lack of space is causing a problem for many irritated students.

Junior Sara Dolloff a lives in Wachusett Hall. With an aggravated tone in her voice she comments about the parking problem:

"I baby sit every morning before class and I can never find a spot. I circle the parking lots two or three times and find nothing. Yesterday I was running late and couldn't find a spot, so I put my flashers on and when I came back from class, I had a ticket"

This major problem comes down to one main fact: There are just not enough parking spots for the amount of people who bought parking stickers at the whopping price of one hundred dollars for the year.

"I can't believe I pay that much money when I can never find a spot, and to top it off the tickets are usually twenty-five bucks," said Junior Rachael Hurley, who lives in West. Residents of West share the same parking lot with the students of North and South.

There has to be another way in which the parking situation could be changed to avoid the tickets, the aggravation, and that tiny, money-sucking vehicle our school likes to call Parking Enforcement.

With regard to the parking stickers, it would make more sense if each car had an assigned spot instead of the assigned colors with which that each section of the campus is marked. That, however, would bring about the reality of the parking situation yet again: There are not enough spots.

With the lack of spots students often find themselves in the same scenario late at night when they want to park closer to their dorms but can't find a spot and have a red permit. The only place with spots left is the bottom lot near the LLC, but it's only for students with a green permit.

After parking there, they know they're going to walk back in the morning only to see that narrow, white piece of paper on your windshield.

For paying such a large fee to park our cars on this campus, we should be able to find a spot or a better solution.

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