If you commute to Platteville, or have a commuter-parking pass, you have probably noticed the lack of available parking. The economic downturn has caused more people to commute to school instead of staying in a dorm or apartment. The lack of commuter parking is extremely frustrating.  Between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. seems to be the time when finding a place to park is the most difficult.

If you arrive on campus after 9 a.m. you can forget about finding a parking spot unless you get lucky and happen to find someone leaving. I have arrived around 9:40 a.m. twice because of a canceled class, and have had to drive around for 20 minutes trying to find a spot. This is ridiculous.  Students should not have to play musical parking spots when they pay $90 a year to park.

During these parking frenzies you can see many other students circling every parking lot methodically hoping to find somebody leaving or to find the rarely empty spot. Unless you arrive right when classes are ending, you will hardly ever be able to find a spot. But when classes release, look out. This is when the race really starts. The people who have been circling all the lots now have to compete with the people who are just arriving. Again, I do not think it’s right to pay $90 to compete for a parking spot, drive around for 20 minutes looking for a spot, or have to be late for a class because there are so many people looking for so few spots.

To make things worse, UW-P often has events where guests need to park on campus. Last week there was a program for incoming students. In Ullsvik, on my way to class, I heard an employee say to a guest that they were sorry it was hard to find a parking spot but there were 200 extra guests on campus that day. For anybody arriving after 9 a.m. that day, there was no way they found a spot to park. There needs to be something done about parking because if there is not enough parking for commuters on a regular day, there definitely are not enough with 200 visitors on campus. I see the frustration on commuters’ faces when racing through the parking lots and somebody swoops in front of them and takes that last spot. No, the parking lots are not full in the afternoons, but if they are packed in the mornings and people are late for classes because of it, then it is reason enough to make more parking available.

Stephanie Carley
Business Administration and Communications Technologies major