2008 Woodie Awards
PSU grapples with parking woes
Aida Zamilova
Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: Front Page
"It's a hot topic every year," said Butch Herring, director of police and parking services, about PSU's perennial parking problems.
The numbers tell the story: With current enrollment of about 7,200 students, the university has 4,027 total parking spaces, according to Herring. These include the brown, blue, gold and orange spaces, as well as the handicap, visitor and motorcycle spaces. Of those, 2,153 are brown spaces for commuting students and 421 orange spaces for dorm residents.
Many PSU students agree the university has a parking problem and voice their complaints, particularly at the beginning of the fall semester.
Katelyn Humphreys, senior in elementary education, says she always has to park far away from where she needs to be.
"It depends on where you have to be," said Humphreys. "On the south side of campus by Nation and Dellinger there is not a lot of parking for the number of students who live on that side of campus."
For Kimberly Miller, graduate student in history, finding a good parking spot requires a stalking instinct.
"To get a parking space, you have to get here early or you are pretty much like a shark - someone in the water waiting for your prey," she said.
Sudip Singh, graduate student in business administration, suggests that the university buy the private parking lot by Mooreman's, across the street from campus.
"We don't find parking spots, especially in front of Kelce. They need to add more parking spaces there," said Singh. "They can take some of the blue parking spaces and turn them into student parking."
Herring says the university tries to maintain a balance in its allocation of parking spaces to students and staff.
"We are trying to draw a line to where we can be favorable to both. We are not going to accomplish a parking spot for each person; that's not going to happen," he said.
Singh also suggests the university build a multilevel parking garage, an idea university officials have studied in the past.
The numbers tell the story: With current enrollment of about 7,200 students, the university has 4,027 total parking spaces, according to Herring. These include the brown, blue, gold and orange spaces, as well as the handicap, visitor and motorcycle spaces. Of those, 2,153 are brown spaces for commuting students and 421 orange spaces for dorm residents.
Many PSU students agree the university has a parking problem and voice their complaints, particularly at the beginning of the fall semester.
Katelyn Humphreys, senior in elementary education, says she always has to park far away from where she needs to be.
"It depends on where you have to be," said Humphreys. "On the south side of campus by Nation and Dellinger there is not a lot of parking for the number of students who live on that side of campus."
For Kimberly Miller, graduate student in history, finding a good parking spot requires a stalking instinct.
"To get a parking space, you have to get here early or you are pretty much like a shark - someone in the water waiting for your prey," she said.
Sudip Singh, graduate student in business administration, suggests that the university buy the private parking lot by Mooreman's, across the street from campus.
"We don't find parking spots, especially in front of Kelce. They need to add more parking spaces there," said Singh. "They can take some of the blue parking spaces and turn them into student parking."
Herring says the university tries to maintain a balance in its allocation of parking spaces to students and staff.
"We are trying to draw a line to where we can be favorable to both. We are not going to accomplish a parking spot for each person; that's not going to happen," he said.
Singh also suggests the university build a multilevel parking garage, an idea university officials have studied in the past.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
sckirklan
Steven
posted 7/25/08 @ 12:31 PM CST
I hardly see how the closing Joplin street is going to add a significant amount of parking to condone such an activity. Furthermore I'd like to know how PSU will be handling egress through private residental driveways of implied private residental homeowners on (E or W) Lindburg ST. (Continued…)
Christopher
posted 7/25/08 @ 11:33 PM CST
What I don't get is why Nation, Willard, and Dillenger have rather big parking lots (still not enough I realize) and yet Trout, Bowen, and Tanner have such limited parking?
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