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Last updated: Thursday, Feb. 9, 1:34 a.m.
Opinion

Op-Ed: First-year students should be UM parking’s last resort

By Lisa Haberzettl
Posted on Oct. 05, 2009, at 2:35 a.m.

The problem is visible every day and every where you look on campus. Evidence of it is as ubiquitous as our hallowed, ivy-covered brick buildings. It’s as detrimental to class attendance as a swine flu scare. And it just keeps getting worse.

I’m talking about the parking problem. Last year, Parking Services finally admitted they have been giving out more permits than there are parking spaces. For every residential parking space on campus, Parking Services issued 1.2 parking permits, 1.6 permits for every commuter space and 1.9 permits for every staff space. While this could have serious implications for parking tickets (“It’s your fault I couldn’t find a legal place to park!”), the more obvious conclusion is that there is simply not enough parking to go around. Because of this, commuters and staff have to race each other to campus; many students are often late to classes because they spent 15 minutes hunting down a parking spot and then had three minutes to sprint clear across campus.

So what are we to do? Either expand parking areas or decrease the number of cars on campus. With a parking garage nowhere in sight and no mention of more parking lots being paved – Hilltop Parking Lot was a field not too long ago – the only other option is to get rid of cars. The University of Maine has tried to encourage car pooling and rental cars, but with the limited reserved car pool spaces and no more Zipcars, such efforts have obviously not been as successful as planned.

One tried and true method is still left: No more cars for first-years.

Right now, I’m sure, almost every first-year student reading this has an urge to burn the paper and send me nasty e-mails. But I’m not alone in supporting this proposal, and before you get mad at me, think about it.

Almost all first-year students live on campus, and thus don’t have to drive to class. Living in a residence hall requires them to have a meal plan, so it’s not like they have to go grocery shopping. And anyone wishing to get off campus for a while can hitch a ride with a friend – yes, first-years, despite being segregated to one side of campus, we do encourage you to make friends with upperclassmen – or take the BAT Bus, which is free for all UMaine students. Going home for breaks and weekends is not as hard as you might think, either. Take the BAT into Bangor and catch a Greyhound. If you’re headed somewhere closer, it’s easier. Every Friday and Sunday, the Concord Trailways bus comes directly to campus. From there you can ride one bus as far south as Boston, with a pit stop in Portland, or else hop onto a different line that will take you along the coast. Students receive a discount on round-trip tickets and extra runs are added for school breaks – so if you want to go home this weekend for October break, you can catch a bus back to campus on Tuesday. Groovy, right?

No on-campus parking for first-years is not a revolutionary idea. I remember it being common when my oldest brother first started exploring colleges in 2000. Banned first-year parking covers the spectrum of college types: coast to coast, from Maine’s own Bowdoin College to the California Maritime Academy; spanning the financial run from the State University of New York at Albany, which has a similar tuition cost to UMaine, to Purdue University, where tuition alone is more than $36,000 per year. The trend has even spread internationally, to Rutgers University in New Brunswick and the University of Western Australia.

If you’re still not convinced, there’s one more thing to consider: If you leave your car at home, you’ll be reducing fuel emissions and helping to save our planet. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was still breathable air by the time you graduate in 2013?

Lisa Haberzettl is head copy editor for The Maine Campus.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009, 2:35 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

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  • ryan

    For the love of God, here we go again. There is no parking crisis or problem. There never has been. And no, the university did not “admit” to anything regarding the number of parking permits issued in relation to the number of parking spaces. It has been well-known (apparently not to this columnist) that more permits are issued than there are spaces. It’s been known for at least the last 20 years.

    And so what? Not everybody with a permit is on campus at the same time.

    The only “problem” with parking is that some students think everyone should be able to drive right up to the door and park. Good luck with that.

  • tavi

    I’m not going to touch that hallowed American love of the automobile except to say, yes, you can get by on campus without one. Expecting first-year students to live without the privilege to drive, however, is more than simply unfair.

    It would seem like the ON-campus parking challenge could be solved in another simple way. For at least a portion of the academic year, bicycling is a perfectly viable option, even and especially for many commuter students who live in Orono and Old Town. We lack, however, weatherproof bicycle parking for commuters in any amount. Some of the residence halls have bicycle storage rooms, but not all. Maybe we could take a bit of pressure off parking without removing privileges, but that requires forward-thinking creativity and a little pedal power.

  • Tyler

    Yes i agree with Tavi. Pressure should be taken off on the commuter ends more than on residents. There’s no way that that many people have to commute to school. there are lots of alternatives – biking, walking, bat bus, AND…

    There is the new Orono Shuttle bus that runs every half-hour between campus, downtown Orono, and Orchard Trails! Surely more people can use that.

  • http://wowimo.blogspot.com Kat

    Rutgers University is located in New Brunswick, NEW JERSEY, and last time I checked, that makes it located in the United States, not internationally. Rutgers is the state school of New Jersey with over 40,000 students – and located in a place with plenty of public transportation. I’m not sure where the information was obtained for this article, but perhaps you should double check the sources used.

    Personally I carpool and get dropped off. Some days it actually forces me to do work I probably wouldn’t. That being said, parking is a perceived problem on almost every college campus in the US. It is not a real problem. Parking right next to the building you have class in is not a right. Of course public safety hands out more passes than spaces. What are they supposed to do – turn people down? Get here early, or don’t mind being late to class – and walk a bit, it won’t kill you.

  • STFU

    Ryan, what is the source of your anger? You condescendingly post to so many articles posted here. Are you some bored 30-year-old who just can’t quit bashing college students?

  • ryan

    What anger?

    I always find it interesting that journalists like to critique others but when others critique them suddenly criticism is about “anger,” etc.

    Had this columnist done some basic research, she would know that it has never been a secret that the university issues more parking permits than there are spaces.

    There was a time when critical thinking was taught in journalism classes.

    Hiding behind a juvenile screen name of “STFU” says more about whoever you are than genuine criticism that very well could be coming from a professor.