Everyone knows that parking at Carolina is a hassle. If you park at the Carolina Coliseum parking lots, you remember that just last week students were forced to compete for parking with the circus, which took up half of one of the lots.
Unless you always get to campus before 9 a.m., you have also experienced the circus that is the Coliseum parking lot, with drivers cutting off other drivers, honking and gesturing, pulling out in front of others, circling the lot looking for a spot or stalking a student that is leaving and waiting impatiently until that person pulls out.
You may have left an hour before your class, only to drive around looking for a spot until it’s class time and you’re forced to go back home. Or perhaps in a last minute scramble, you parked illegally in order to get to an exam, only to come back to a whopper of a ticket.
If you purchased a general parking pass, you took the risk that you are not guaranteed a parking spot. Although the price is far less than a garage pass, you still expected your $80 to potentially get you a spot from the date the pass took effect at the end of August 2013 or when you purchased it, until August 2014.
Well, news broke yesterday that your parking stress is going to get worse. We all knew the construction of a new dorm was inevitable since the day the plan was announced, but we did not know that construction would cause the Coliseum parking lots to close next week.
This means the competition for a parking spot will only become more fierce as people compete for fewer parking spots. Discovery Garage is being offered as an alternative for those who normally park at the Coliseum, forcing those who paid the $340 for that garage’s pass to compete with those being relocated. It is unfair to all.
Although we all knew that construction of this new dorm would begin soon, it would have made more sense to wait the one month until the spring semester ended for the lots to close or be repurposed. According to the Vehicle Management and Parking Services website, spots in garages are still available, but that is a ridiculous solution when the school year is almost over and the cost of a garage pass is so high.
With all the stress that comes from being a college student, stress about parking at school is unnecessary. Students need to be able to get to class in a practical, timely manner. This extra parking stress needs to be handled at USC so that students can get to class and worry about the things that truly matter to them. Parking reform is absolutely necessary.
Perhaps the closing of these lots will go over seamlessly, but I truly doubt it. We will not have to wait long to see.
It is my hope that instead of just shuffling commuters from parking lot to parking lot, a student-led dialogue with the administration would begin solving Carolina’s parking issues.
First, upperclassmen are told there is no room for them in on-campus housing, and now we feel like there is no room for us to park at school once we are forced to commute. Students need to be heard, listened to and valued. After all, we are the ones paying for tuition and parking passes and commuting to class.
— Kate Lohman, second-year public health student