I am, and have been for quite some time, extremely angry at the parking situation on campus. I am a sophomore resident here at Cabrini, and tonight I read the article published in the Loquitur entitled, “Parking System Fails to Impress”. I work a 30 hour week on top of going to class each day, and from Tuesday-Saturday I do not get home until after 10 because of my work schedule. While the weekends tend not to be so bad, when I return home from work late on weeknights, it is almost impossible for me to find a spot on residential blvd. That’s 4 nights out of the week that I am forced to either park in Dixon, or run the risk of getting a ticket parking in Founders. I see this as completely unfair, when I’m paying $75 a year to park on campus, and I’m constantly forced to park at the completely other end of campus and walk back in the dark (or wait 20 minutes for public safety to come give me a ride back to new res, along with an attitude to go with it).
I also hate that if I’m hungry late at night while I’m with a group of my friends, we spend more time arguing over who’s going to lose their parking spot and drive than actually going out, which most of the time we end up not doing because no one wants to get a ticket. I don’t understand why when commuters can park in dixon OR founders to go to class, and are there for only a few hours per day, why residents can’t park in Founders if there’s no other spots. Even if a certain number of spots were marked off for BOTH commuters OR residents in Founders lot, some of the stress would be taken away.
Also in the article, it stated that out of a total count of 155 cars surveys on Residential Blvd, only *99* had parking permits. 99. That’s 56 cars that shouldn’t be parked there. 56 spots that could be given to people who actually PAID for their spots, and 56 less tickets that would have to be paid by students who can’t afford them. Apparently this new way of giving tickets was put into place so that public safety could spend more time doing their jobs instead of having to write out tickets… apparently making sure that no one parks illegally on residential blvd isn’t their job, because nothing getting done.
It’s absolutely infuriating coming home from an 8-hour day at work and having to drive around campus for 10 minutes looking for parking. I already have accumulated one ticket for parking in Founders so far, and to be honest, the 60 hours that I work every two weeks just about covers the bills I have as it is , I honestly cannot afford another 30 dollar ticket, on top of the $75 I’ve already given this college for apparently nothing in return.
Disgruntled, Ali DeRita
