Many students are quick to blame them not being able to find a parking spot on the administration’s lack of providing parking availability. However, if we look at this situation realistically we will realize that the school, and public safety in general, don;t have much to do with it. Public Safety administrator Mrs. Nelson tells us, “Parking on C.W. Post campus is a privilege.” Technically speaking, it is free. Unlike various other schools, the ability to park at C.W. Post is one that will not cost us anything. As we all know, what is free will not be great. Junior Andrea Deignan tells us that before coming to Post she attended George Mason University in Virginia and that there the purchase of a parking permit was mandatory. “Even though the parking lots fill up quickly here, it’s still better than paying a yearly rate.”
“I did notice the parking for 9:30 classes is more competitive than it has been in the previous years. Normally I’d be able to get a pretty decent parking spot even if I arrived on campus closer to 9:30 than 9:00/9:15,” says senior Lisa Treanor, “But because of common hour (or increase of students) forcing more students into taking earlier classes, it’s become much more cutthroat to get a good spot.” Lisa is a commuter and deals with the competition of getting a parking spot daily. We are left to wonder, as Lisa pointed out, is there an increase in students or is the development of common hour pressuring students to take earlier classes than they otherwise would have?
According to Mrs. Nelson the public safety officials are not going out of their way to give out tickets, they are just doing their job handing them out to those illegally parked. Reassuring or not, she does also want us to know, “Faculty is receiving the same consequences as the students for parking illegally, it is the Post community as a whole that needs to park legally to keep our campus safe, not just the students.” When asked about the parking situation Professor Dodrill takes a different, more positive approach, “I fully understand the problem, as I’ve been here a long time, parked illegally, been ticketed, and once was towed to the pound in Security. It’s good that there’s a parking problem, because it means healthy enrollment for us all.” There are plenty of spots available for students, however a lot of them are in places many of us wouldn’t even think about parking, because of their distance.
Mrs. Nelson from Public Safety informed us that C.W. Post allows for 4,479 legally parked vehicles. Aside from driving to school there are also other options that commuters can take advantage of such as easily accessible public transportation, as well as the option of car pooling.
Be First to Comment