Where are all of the students with cars on campus expected to park? It seems that this campus can never solve its parking problems. Before this school year, students living in Caroline, Queen Anne, Reid, and Minta Martin had to fight for spaces in the cramped parking lot behind Reid. Now, this is the situation all over campus. With the construction going on at Queen Anne, the Reid parking lot is even more full and hard to maneuver in. Students who live in Gibson used to be able to park on the grass, but, since the yellow caution tape has gone up around the pavement, even more parking spaces have been eliminated. Students in the Western Shore dorms used to be able to park along the road leading back to the parking lot. This at least added to the number of available parking spaces, even though it raised many valid safety concerns.
When one considers the long-running lack of parking spaces, coupled with the fact that recently the school has allowed students to park in certain areas, then changed its mind, it is no wonder that students do not know where to park. Some students literally have to park across the campus from their dorms. And, late at night, when it is cold and dark, this is a major problem.
This raises the question of what exactly constitutes a parking space, and, recently, Public Safety and WC students have disagreed on the answer. The truth is that there is a lot of available parking space on campus, but students get into trouble for parking in them. For example, in the parking lot behind Harford and the Western Shore dorms, there is space for at least two cars along many of the curbs. And students often take advantage of this space, especially at night when the closest available parking spaces for students living in the new dorms are often by the CAC or farther.
Recently, however, Public Safety has been issuing tickets to students parking in these spaces. Tickets are as much as 35 dollars: 10 dollars for parking in a no-parking zone and 25 dollars for impeding the flow of traffic. Both of these accusations are ambiguous. There is nothing stating that these zones are no-parking zones, and cars parked there do not impede the flow of traffic.
If this were an issue of students being lazy, Public Safety would be entirely justified in handing out tickets. However, with the lacking of parking spaces causing safety issues and the unclear policies WC has on parking, there is no need to ticket students for parking in available space, even if it is not a designated parking space.
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