Living in the Village has it advantages, such as having your own bathroom, living in large rooms, and having air conditioning. But there are disadvantages, one of which, according to many of the students living in the Village, is parking.
“The parking situation is horrendous down here,” said Mike Barry ’05. “It just doesn’t make sense that two extremely large parking lots are in front of all freshmen buildings.”
Barry is not the only student who has complaints about the parking situation in the Village. Security has received more complaints about the Village than anywhere else on campus.
“The Village is a problem this year [for parking],” said Associate Director of Security Frank Ficko.
Security has been addressing this situation in a number of ways. Village residents have been unable to find a parking spot in the Village lots and have been given permission to park in the two lots behind Alumni Hall and the Rec-Plex.
“We have been allowing parking behind the gym, if no available stalls are open in the Village,” said Ficko. “We have instructed our officers not to ticket Village residents in the commuter lot.”
That only applies to those two lots, warned Ficko.
“The lot closest to [the School of Nursing] is a faculty/staff lot and if any Village resident parks there, they will be ticketed,” said Ficko. “The one ticket that is not appealable is when people park where they are not authorized by permit.”
Security is also making another change in the Village parking lots. The old Quick Center lot is being made one way to allow for parallel spots to be created.
“The Quick Center lot is becoming one way with the North entrance being the only way to enter and the South entrance will be exit only,” said Ficko. “We will make parallel spots along the curbs. We will gain about a dozen spots.”
Security has reconfigured traffic in parking areas in the past to create additional parking.
“We created a one-way traffic pattern up at the townhouses this summer and gained 22 additional parking stalls,” said Ficko.
Students doubt the effectiveness of the change in the Quick Center lot and do not think it does enough.
“If they think that 12 parking spots will solve the problem, they are sorely mistaken,’ said Barry.
“People were making parallel spots anyway because there is not enough parking to begin with,” said Mike Tobin ’05. “So they [security] were forced to make those spots.”
Security was aware of people parallel parking in that lot, and that is why they made the parking lot one way, according to Ficko.
“We were worried about an accident with two way traffic and parallel parking occurring,” said Ficko. “We want safety, so we decided to make it one way to allow for more room to drive and park. We also want to make sure that students know they can parallel park on the curbs without being ticketed.”
Some students do not like the one way lot.
“I think that the one way is just dumb because it’s a parking lot. People are going to drive however they want,” said Tobin.
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