Every single day, there is a united struggle of all driving Wesleyan students to find a parking spot.
The problem gets worse every year as the number of admitted students rises and compacts the number of students currently attending Wesleyan to the point that some people are paying for parking passes they rarely get to use because, no matter what, they are still parking up the street.
But I have some suggestions that could help with the problem.
There are a certain number of residents and staff that work in each building, correct?
There is the exception of Agnes-Howard and McCuskey Halls which act as offices and classrooms for the Theatre and Art Departments, respectively. With the limit of the number of students per residence hall, there is a marginal amount of students who don’t drive or bring their cars to campus, and this is obviously an error in logic, but we’re assuming 90% drive a car.
With this understanding, Campus Life or Campus Security or whoever is in charge needs to calculate the total number of parking spots on campus.
Then, identify what of those spots are for faculty and staff. We should honor our faculty and staff by providing each of them a parking spot in an area that is close to the building where they work, even if that puts students at a perceived inconvenience. Make parking passes specific to faculty and staff (designated by F/S #). You could make special parking for the President, the Dean of Students, and the Dean of the Chapel, Wesleyan’s more honored positions. They’ve done alot for the school to attain the position they have, and they should be honored as such.
After this, there are a certain number of spots left. Designate 10 spots for guests in the on campus parking area, 15 if you’re feeling a little more liberal about guests coming. These are “during the week” spots.
On the weekends, make everything fair game. Staff/Faculty parking should be fair game since not many of them are there, retaining the spots for The President, Dean of Students, and Dean of the Chapel for weekend activities they wish to attend.
With what parking is left after designating all of those parking spots to faculty, staff, and guests, the rest is student parking.
Now, you’re probably thinking this sounds very similar to the structure of things now, but here’s where we’re going to change it up. Here’s my idea:
Number the parking spots in each of the lots. You have the place you live — residence hall or commuter. Each residence hall will have a specific number of spots available for prime parking. Students who live in Doney Hall or Agnes Howard or Dunn Hall will have the chance to go and buy a prime parking pass until those are sold out, and then afterward, buy an overflow pass for the big dumping lot in the back — this will create a high demand for a little supply of parking passes. The people who profit from the parking passes could raise the price for these prime spots even because there is a benefit of being closer to the building you live in.
The parking passes will all be numbered, so the sooner you would go put forward the money to get the pass, the better the parking spot you get. Here’s the catch to that. That is YOUR parking spot, so only you have the tag to park in that spot.
I also have thrown around the idea of the campus life staff getting prime parking passes. They do a lot of work in helping you meet new people, answering our five million questions, and making sure your toilets keep working (understatement of what they do, and not just saying that because of first hand experience). For all that they do, they have earned a good parking spot, at least.
Is there a chance that this problem could ever be resolved and we see good parking for all? Who knows, but this is a chance to sound off about some ideas on solving the parking problem that we have. Who knows? Maybe enough people could agree with this and we could take it to The People of Influence and get some change!