Campus Parking Becomes A Problem

Maybe I shouldn’t say that it has become a problem, because some people will say that its always been a problem.  But I digress.

Over the summer, the college decided to turn the entire Gathering Place parking lot into a a red lot, which is freshmen only.  Prior to the change, the lot had been both blue and red, with blue being for upperclassmen.  At the same time, the former Moose Lodge parking lot is now yellow (faculty) and blue.  The change has made many upperclassmen as red as the freshmen lots.

This Facebook Group was started to raise the issue with fellow students and organize an Electronic Executive Carpet Bomb of sorts, by asking students to e-mail Rita Smith Kipp (the provost of Marietta College).  The group wants to see the parking policies changed back to allow upperclassmen to park in the Gathering Place parking lot once again, and shift commuters and freshmen to the Moose Lodge lot.  Here is a comment from the group.

This is ridiculous. Don’t most schools not even allow freshmen to bring their cars? And yet we are giving them more privileges? If anything, it should go the other way.

~ Katie Wolfe, MC Student

Student Senate has been notified of the problem, and I’m sure that it will be discussed at the first meeting of the year, which is this coming Wednesday.  Writing on the Mall will be there to cover the meeting.

If anything, the one thing that shocks me the most from the group is the claim that a CPS officer told the group’s creator to “take a cab”.  If true, something needs to be done about this mentality at CPS.  Campus Police offers free escort services from any part of campus to wherever you need to go.  It’s their job to provide that opportunity to students.

Is there a good way of fixing things this semester?  Possibly.  But the difficulty is that the parking passes are out and the spaces have been designated.  Any changes may take as long as next year to see come to fruition.  But better to work through Student Senate and e-mails with Rita Kipp about the issue so that the College knows that it is a problem than to let it sit idle and not have anything done about.