Okay, am I the only one who thinks that parking at SMU completely sucks? Correct me if I’m wrong, but SMU’s parking situation is probably most students’ least favorite thing about SMU.
I am a freshman, and I live in Boaz. Freshmen mainly have to park in the parking garages, which aren’t completely horrible. It’s pretty inconvenient at times when you need to run an errand or something. You must get your keys and your student ID card, walk to the garage, walk up the stairs, get in your car and head out. Well once you actually get to the electronic arm at the exit, it might not always work. Many times I have tried to take the Ownby exit, but the scanner simply reads, “Access Denied”. After the scanner displayed this one particular time, I looked in my rearview mirror. There were two cars behind me, and I had to embarrassingly shift my car into reverse. Those two little white reverse lights caused quite a scene. I had to make the other cars move so I could back up and go to the other exit. After pulling some James Bond-style driving moves, I finally headed for the other exit—Binkley Ave. Once I got there, my student ID swiped just fine! And I finally got on my way…
Returning to campus and parking can sometimes be equally as frustrating. When you realize there are no spots on the 3rd or 4th level, it’s up to the 5th level. Then you have to walk down five flights of stairs or wait for the elevator. Frustrating, once again.
I don’t know how parking works at other dorms on campus, but behind Boaz Hall, there is a nice parking lot. The first few days of school, everyone thought the girls that live in Boaz could park there—right at the back door of Boaz Hall. How convenient, right? Wrong. We have just found out that the parking lot that connects Boaz to the Cox School of Business is for faculty/staff. How crazy is that? A nice, big parking lot right behind Boaz Hall, but us residents can’t even park there.
Students can park behind McElvaney and other dorms, right? So why can’t students park behind Boaz? Why should students have to walk across the street to the parking garage when there is a perfectly good parking lot outside the back door of Boaz Hall?
5 comments:
I completely agree with you! I parked behind Boaz during the first week of school and I only got a warning, luckily. I did not even see the sign that says that it is a faculty parking lot. Why would you not let a student park right behind their own dorm? Where are we supposed to park? SMU’s solution is that parking garage. Too bad when I tried that, it said “access denied” as soon as I tried and I was forced to park behind McElvaney. Why did I pay three hundred dollars to be denied in a garage and have to park extremely far?
I completely that SMU has a terrible parking situation. The school makes millions of dollars every year in parking tickets alone! It seems that they purposely don’t label parking spaces, or lots for that matter, in order to nickel and dime students who are already paying $50,000 a year! What I also find to be ridiculous is that the school is allowed to ticket you if your vehicle is not parked perfectly in the space. For example, if your car were to be angled (maybe even not over the line) they would have grounds to ticket you! Students are already paying big bucks to park on campus and yet the school is finding ways to suck more money out of their wallets.
I too got a ticket for parking in a "Faculty Only" space and I AM faculty! It wasn't marked clearly that only faculty with a certain letter on their decal could park there. Also beware of the UP police; they will ticket you if your tire is just a little over that broken down curb on Hillcrest behind my building. The curb is almost non-existant, so look when you get out of your car.
However, I have an opinion you will probably all hate me for: There are too many cars on this campus. Why? Students think they need a car. They don't. I had no car through four years of living on campus in Cleveland, a big city. I used the bus, the light rail, and my bicycle. My nephew is entering Ohio U. in Athens this fall. He isn't taking his car because first-year students are not allowed to have cars on campus. So why do you all think you need a car anyway? Get bikes. Use Dart. Go green.
I completely agree...Parking at SMU really sucks. I think the logical thing to do is to allocate parking spaces only for students in front of(if not close to) his/her residence hall and relocate ALL faculty staff parking to the parking garages. With the exception of hall director's and RA's, I don't see the necessity in reserving parking spaces in front of a residence hall for faculty/staff 24/7 when they are on campus for only part of the day. Students on the other hand, are on campus 24/7 (non-commuters). I live in shuttles and I've observed that almost HALF (if not more) of the parking lot is for faculty staff 24/7. I think it’s ridiculous that Shuttles residents’ are forced to walk all the way across campus because an empty parking in front of Shuttles is reserved for Faculty/ Staff. For the sake of students’ safety and convenience, I suggest that SMU build another parking garage so that every quad has a parking garage. That way students won’t have to walk all the way across campus to get to their dorms.
I agree with the general idea of how bad parking is on campus but i disagree with the idea that parking should be reserved for being placed behind residence halls. Perhaps while this is convenient for students living there, the majority of students at smu DON'T live on campus. The truth is the majority of people that I know that aren't freshman tend to live off campus or in the frat houses which makes parking a much larger issue when trying to fit into the garages. Perhaps building parking garages in open area's instead of new fountains like the school is by the present Airline garage where the majority of commuting students park. Perhaps instead of prioritizing parking it should just open parking for students and with specific areas regulated for faculty. It doesn't make sense for the Law school to have their own garage and for only faculty to be allowed near academic buildings.
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