Peter Caty/The Mirror
1. The new parking lot across the street from the Quick Center is a result of cutting down 60 trees, months of construction and has received no major use by students, faculty, staff or visitors. According to Fairfield University economics professor Dina Franceschi, “by the time the faculty and students learned about the plans to build the parking lot, the University was uninviting to discuss alternative plans, and by the time the lot was built, the need they cried for a parking lot was not there.”
2. According to Mark C. Reed, the V.P. of Administration and Student Affairs, “the south end of campus, which includes the business school, Quick Center, and the Village residential area, had been perhaps the tightest and most challenging parking area on campus. The expansion of the lot across the street from the Quick Center was intended to ease the situation.”
3. Reed also said, “The target audience for the lot is primarily Quick Center patrons and visitors to campus. In addition, faculty and staff can park there during the day.”
4. At 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2010 during “New Orleans Nights” with Allan Toussaint, Nicholas Payton and the Joe Krown Trio at the Quick Center, there is a small overflow into the new parking lot, but the lot is not at full capacity.
5. The original parking lot across from the Quick Center is seen full to capacity during the “New Orleans Nights” on Friday night.
6. At 1:30 p.m. on November 15, 2010, the old parking lot across from the Quick Center is sparsely filled and the new parking lot is completely empty. Since professors, including Brian Walker, used the trees for research and during classes where the new parking lot now stands, cutting down the trees, says Franceschi, “is like bulldozing down a classroom building.”
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