STAFF EDITORIAL– Having a car on campus is a luxury that we should all embrace, but it is really as good as it seems?
You would think with purchasing a $100 parking permit for the year, you would be able to park wherever, whenever you want. This is not the case.
According to Denison’s Motor Vehicle Regulations, all students must park according to color-coded areas indicated by a map of campus.
These areas are in collaboration with which “quad” you live in. So all East Quad residents can only park at East Quad.
We understand that Campus Safety does the best they can to clearly address parking regulations on campus, whether it be deadlines for permits, acceptable places to park at or times during which students are or are not allowed to park in certain areas.
This is really important to be aware of because if your car is found in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could receive a minor or major violation. This violation can result in a ticket, even though you mistakenly parked in the wrong area.
Throughout this academic year, we’ve all had some unfortunate, stressful experiences as a result of having a vehicle on campus. For the amount of students on campus, there is little-to-no space to park near your residential hall.
Although the view is picturesque, the rolling hills of Denison make no room for essential parking spots for students. The available parking next to the res-halls are not in “lot” form, but they are in parallel parking form.
There are some spots in the several provided overfill lots, but they are a far walk from your dorm. If you came from the grocery store, for example, you would have to make several pain-staking trips back and forth on the hill.
In terms of parking on East Quad, the parallel parking spots along East Loop and the lot behind Crawford Hall are usually filled, forcing students to park behind Mitchell. All of us can agree that we are constantly scavenging and competing for spots near our residence halls.
When it comes to P1 and P2, don’t even get us started. The bitter cold and rainy days make students more likely to drive to Slayter and class, but restrictions in the parking garage limit this access.
As someone that does not have a car on campus, this issue really only (if ever) affects me when I’m in the passenger seat. Once in awhile, there’s a hard time finding a parking spot which can be frustrating, but yet I’ve never been in a situation where it’s taken me more than five minutes to find one. There are so many other issues that I think we should be focusing on about Denison before we focus on the difficulties of having a car.
Yet, I have never really felt like it’s a real issue.
I pay all this money to park on our campus and then I get charged a $40 ticket for parking a little over the line? I got four tickets (three of which were unfair and completely ridiculous) and I got my parking taken away. I am still paying the $100 and I have to park the whole way down at Ebaugh. I have to drive to a job three times a week and do not have time to make the twenty minute trek over to that parking lot. It is ridiculous. Let me park back on East or give me my money back. Those tickets were unfair and I am livid