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Students claim on-campus parking is a problem at CMU

By on September 30, 2009 5:30 am in University / 15 comments

 
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Students are complaining that parking is a problem at Central Michigan University.

The parking lots behind Moore Hall and the Music Building are congested, packed full with nowhere for incoming cars to go.

So is the lot north of the Towers near Pearce Hall.

Some students are angry, blaming faculty members for not taking advantage of faculty-only lots. Specifically, a new lot adjacent to the Education and Human Services Building.

It is available to faculty and staff members only, but many are not using it, said East Tawas sophomore Taylor Phillips. Instead, he said they continue to park in Lots 22 and 33 by habit.

“Maybe our teachers need to be more educated,” said Phillips, who parks his car at the back of Lot 33 every day. “They have another parking lot that would place them even closer to the buildings the teach in anyway. Why wouldn’t they want to park there? They are just making it really hard for us to get to class on time.”

CMU Police has sold 10,940 parking permits for the 2009-10 academic year. Of those, 8,794 are students and 2,146 are faculty members, said CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley.

There are 11,196 parking spaces on campus.

Lot 33 holds 971 spaces, designated as an all-student lot. Lot 22 holds 873 spaces, 22 of which are designated parking for faculty members. The EHS building lot holds 297
spaces, all designated for faculty and staff parking only.

Yeagley said the new EHS lot has been, at most, three-quarters full. That leaves about 75 of the 297 available parking spaces empty on any weekday.

Yeagley said there have not been any formal complaints filed at the police department.

‘Ridiculously full’

Since the EHS Building lot’s opening two weeks ago, many students have been issued tickets. Yeagley said the sign at the lot’s entrance was incorrect, stating students were available to park. The sign was changed Tuesday, and all students who were issued tickets do not have to pay them.

“Those tickets will be void as long as the students come to the police station and tell us about it,” Yeagley said. “Hopefully, now that it is open to faculty only, this will open more parking spaces in Lots 22 and 33 for everybody, and there won’t be as many problems between faculty and student parking needs.”

Alpena senior Kristen Boyk has parked in Lot 33 for the last four years. Each year, she said the lot has become more full.

Boyk has had more trouble finding a parking spot, she said. The most time it has taken was 15 minutes.

“It’s ridiculously full,” she said. “I don’t understand why faculty are still parking in this lot. I don’t think they should. The front commuter lot (Lot 22) is horrible, too. I used to park there sometimes, but it is even harder to find a spot in that lot. It’s just not fun parking basically on Mission Street when my class is in Pearce Hall.”

Steve Smith, director of CMU public relations, said if students have an issue, they need to submit a formal complaint to the CMU Police Department.

“If people have a permit to park in those parking lots, which all faculty members do, and they are not violating the law,” Smith said. “Then I don’t see a problem here.”

 

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  • Jenna

    This is old news. The past four years at CMU I’ve dealt with parking lots being full to the capacity. Certain times of the day, at certain lots you have to continuously drive through the parking lot for five to ten minutes before a parking space opens up and you can sneak in. Filing a formal complaint at the CMU police department probably doesn’t cross the minds of many students. After reading this article, maybe it will encourage students to take the time to file a complaint.

  • Andrew

    Old news? Try ancient. Parking has been a problem since ’99. Seems the 2nd class to follow mine wanted to report on it again.

  • private

    Parkng structure, Emu has one

  • Logical Chip

    Here is a great way to see if there is a parking problem:

    Temporarily abolish the hierarchy.

    Open all of the segregated faculty/staff lots (i.e., 3, 6, 7, 11, 12, 16, 23, 29, 34, and 56) for commuter parking for a month. Have the faculty and staff fight for parking spaces just like the rest of us. The best time to do this would be in January, when it is cold and nasty outside. I bet it would not even be a week and the faculty and staff would be screaming to have it changed back.

    I remember a comment from then President Rao to a student forum in 2005: “All of us will not be able to park where we want.”

    Let’s put that into action, including faculty, staff, and administration! Of course, he meant that all of us students will not be able to park where we want, the “all of us” does not include faculty, staff, and especially the administration.

    I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for any changes. Glad I am out of here soon.

  • Logical Chip

    re: Private

    Yes, EMU has a parking structure. WMU has two parking structures.

    In response to many concerns raised regarding parking availability then President Rao told a student forum in 2005 that there were no plans to build a parking structure.

    I can still hear the words “All of us will not be able to park where we want.” It may be that he really wanted to say that us students should stop whining and be thankful for the crumbs afforded us from the mighty administration’s table.

    Maybe the CMU police department could establish an online form for us to record complaints of full parking lots or permit abuses (i.e., children of faculty/staff using mommy or daddy’s car and permit to park in the faculty/staff lots). The CMU police website does have a complaint/compliment form for officer conduct. We could use that for now to make our voices heard.

    http://www.cmich.edu/Police/File_an_Online_Complaint_or_Compliment.htm

  • Logical Chip

    According to the story there are 11,196 parking spaces on campus and Lot 33 has 971 of those.

    Based on size, it does not take much to figure out that over HALF of the parking spaces “on campus” are south of Broomfield!

    Lots 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, and 70 probably account for 6,000 or more of the “on-campus” spaces. That leaves 5,000 spaces for the rest of us to fight for on a daily basis, minus the dorm (excuse me, residence hall) parking.

  • Grizz

    In my 5 years at CMU I was never late for class once because of parking. All those parking space by the SAC are ALWAYS open. What you don’t want to walk an extra two blocks to class? Get over it. Use the infrastructure that is available, and stop being so lazy.

    Secondly, building a parking structure on campus would be the third biggest waste of money apart from the new education building and med school.

    This isn’t a case of lacking infrastructure. This is a case of student body laziness, and the false sense of entitlement.

    College campuses shouldn’t be filled with cars and traffic. Lots should remain on the outskirts of the campus and students should be recommended to walk or bicycle in.

  • 912

    Oh, please. I thought this story was a put-on when I first read it, but I guess we’re supposed to take seriously this never-ending whine.

    I drive in five days a week and never have a problem finding a spot in the Moore Hall or Music Building lots. Sometimes I’ll have to park at the end of the lot and walk — god forbid — 200 yards or so to the building, but somehow I survive. Something tells me you will, too.

  • VinceC

    Parking structures are an easy solution. It’s not like we don’t have enough space on campus.

  • Logical Chip

    Sorry Grizz, my classes are in Grawn. Paying $175 for parking at the SAC and walking a mile to class is not what anyone would consider acceptable.

    P.S., my girlfriend is an education major and Ronan Hall was a disgrace of a classroom building. The money was well spent on a state of the art learning facility for these future educators.

  • Senior

    You lost all credibility when you said that the Education building was a waste of money. Have you ever been in Ronan Hall?

    Anyway, I think it is ridiculous that CMU continues to pave more parking lots. You would think that in 2009, an institution of higher learning would realize that building “up,” not “out” is a better solution. There is no reason that a school of our size does not have a multi-story parking structure.

  • Rainy

    Just because no complaints were filed doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist and that is common sense. I will definitely go file a complaint after this! I have to get to school at 8:30 in the morning just to make sure I have a parking space and to avoid a parking war with other fellow students. This is for a 9:30 or 11 am class. Yes I am never late for class, but I have to be on campus an hour or more before class starts just so I can get a parking space. I live 10 minutes away from campus and this feels like a waste of time just to wait.

  • chipskeptic

    Ok, whiners, let’s go through this one more time.

    This story was being written in the 80′s, in the 90′s and now in this decade. All of you think that you are the first to experience this and you are very wrong. But what is it that you are experiencing? You have to park farther away from your target building and walk to the building. Egad, such horrors. GROW UP.

    This campus is not that big and wherever you park, you can basically walk anywhere else in 10 minutes. Get off your lazy arses.

  • Logical Chip

    Chipskeptic:

    I challenge you to park in Lot 63 and make the walk to Grawn in 10 minutes.

    Let me know how you do.

  • Logical Chip

    Hello, chipskeptic…have you tried to make the walk yet?