We both see it at the same time. My eyes burn with sweat. My muscles tense, and my back hunches over. I put my foot down onto the accelerator and thrust my wheel sharply to the left just in the nick of time. The Corvette screeches to an abrupt halt and his front bumper barely misses the fender of my jeep. My opponent angrily drives off to engage in another parking war, and I beam with pride. I am happily in the parking space, and I have won the ultimate battle of the Village parking crisis.
This scenario is an increasingly frequent occurrence, and Fairfield University administrators need to take notice. Village residents need more parking lots, and the administration consistently turns a blind eye to this issue.
In the three years that I have lived in the Village, the parking crisis has only gotten worse. Students risk their lives to avoid the $20 ticket that they will surely receive if they cannot find a spot in the Kostka/Claver lot, Apartment lot or the Quick Center lot and are forced to park behind the campus center.
An article by Mirror staff writer Desirae Brown in the Oct. 6 issue says that “the village complex still has the privilege of parking in the Quick Center lot,” but experience has shown that this is not the case when Quick Center events are occurring.
Is not the Quick Center lot for university students who are paying nearly $40,000 a year to study here and another $60 to park near their residence hall? What right does the Fairfield police have to tell me that during a Quick Center event, I cannot park in a lot that is for students, especially when I see several open spots in the area he is blocking off?
On a recent night, I stopped my car and asked the policeman where I should park, since every spot in all of the village parking lots was taken. He told me to park at the Fairfield Prep lot. I quickly informed him that high school boys need to park there for school the next morning and that that could not be the correct location for my car. He then shrugged and told me that he did not know what to tell me. What a helpful officer!
I next stopped my vehicle to ask a Public Safety officer where I should park for the evening, and he told me to park behind the campus center. “Oh no,” I said. “I won’t fall for that one again.” I had done just that my junior year and received the infamous parking ticket.
The Public Safety officer eventually told me that he would call the other Public Safety officers and tell them not to ticket the cars located in the campus center lot that evening. To my ultimate shock, I did not have a ticket on my car the next morning. But something tells me that if I had not gotten up at 8:30 a.m. to relocate my car back to the appropriate lot, I would have a different tale to tell.
In Brown’s article, Dean of Students Mark Reed is reported to have said that the parking problem can be improved if students were to walk to their classes. That is fine and dandy. But that is not the problem that we are addressing. Of course we walk to class. If we drove to class we would have a huge boot put on our car by Public Safety, as I found out last year when Public Safety decided to punish me with the boot just for wanting to get to work on time after class in Canisius.
A free reading light, which I received in my mailbox from Public Safety soon after the unfortunate boot incident-apparently to compensate for the inconvenience-did not seem to do justice to the boot misaligning my steering. I also declined the free pizza the department offered me. Pizza does not pay for arriving to work late and being admonished by my boss.
Additionally, what right do faculty and staff have to park in the village lots when they are attending the library? The five spaces behind the library do not classify as a sufficient parking lot, and this is a major contributor to the parking dilemma in the Village.
Likewise, would it not be more beneficial for the University to spend its money on more parking spaces instead of yet another admissions building?
The bottom line is that administrators need to address the parking issue before accidents occur. New parking lots must be built or additional parking lots need to be available for Village parking.
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