Students get involved in campus parking debate

Under the system, commuter students struggle to find spots.

By Rachel Allred

Published March 2, 2010

MU has faced record enrollment two of the last three years, and students have started to notice space tightening where they live, eat and go to class. In this third part of a four-part series, The Maneater focuses on classroom space and what the university has done to accommodate the growing student population.

*See below for an interactive graphic showing the capacity of student parking lots on campus.

As the university becomes more crowded, some students have to park farther away from campus and search for available spots. But the Department of Parking and Transportation said there is an ample amount of room.

Junior Paula Chapman is one of thousands of students who commute to the university. Chapman said she drives about five minutes from her house at Copper Beech Townhomes off Old 63 to her parking spot at Hearnes Center, located near Faurot Field.

After parking, Chapman waits for a bus to take her to class at Townsend Hall, which usually takes another five minutes, which isn't an unfair amount of time to wait, she said.

But Missouri Students Association President Tim Noce said some students face a longer process.

"Some students who live off campus have to drive 15 to 20 minutes to park 15 or 20 minutes away from campus," Noce said. "Then you have people who live in residence halls who don't have to drive to class, and they get to park in the garages."

One of Noce's goals as MSA president is to change the way permits are allotted.

"What we're looking to do is make it more seniority-based," Noce said. "The way it is now, there are second-year seniors who get priority after all the people who live in residence halls."

Parking and Transportation Director Jim Joy said there are various groups students are placed in to determine where they park.

"Students living in residence halls have highest priority, and the longer they've lived in the residence hall gives them the higher priority for the spaces available to residence hall students," Joy said. "Then you come to students who don't live on campus. Out of those students, graduate TAs and RAs have highest priority, then graduate students, then seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen."

Joy acknowledged some upperclassmen don't like how freshmen are often able to park on campus.

"There are many students who don't think it's right that a freshman living in a residence hall is taking a space in a garage when they, as a senior, are having to park at Hearnes or someplace else," Joy said. "In fact, the residence hall situation is a whole different discussion. You really get into apple and orange business when you start trying to compare those."

Chapman said though she would like to be able to park on campus, she understands why students living in residence halls take precedence.

"It makes sense that if you're living on campus, that's where you should be given priority to park," Chapman said. "Naturally, I wish there were lots that commuters could park in that would be more in walking distance to campus."

Joy said people who park on campus also sometimes don't receive a spot as close as they would like to where they live or have classes. The system isn't perfect, but it works, he said.

"One of the biggest complaints from commuter students is that they're having to park in commuter parking lots, and they don't want to do that," Joy said. "The truth of the matter is there is a commuter lot that has spaces for them to park and a community bus system that will bring them to campus. Convenient? No. Functional? Yes."

There are about 24,000 parking spaces on campus, but Joy said the maximum capacity exceeds that number.

"Capacity doesn't mean spaces," Joy said. "It's how many permits we can issue. If a 1,000-car commuter lot will hold 3,000 commuting students, the capacity is 3,000. That doesn't mean there are 3,000 spaces. It means 3,000 people can come and go from there, and it will function OK."

Joy said a lack of capacity, even in spite of increased enrollment, isn't a problem.

"Quite frankly, we think we can weather this increased enrollment that's taking place," Joy said. "From a capacity standpoint, we're OK. It's just the students who don't want to park there who feel like we don't have enough parking."

Chapman said empty spaces might be available but they aren't always easy to find. One solution considered by MSA and other student leader groups is to prohibit freshmen from having cars on campus. Noce said he wants to avoid implementing that.

"That's not a place I want to go quite yet because that's an extreme change," Noce said.

Joy said he doesn't think the university will resort to this anytime soon.

"I have the authority to do that, but I can't tell them they can't bring a car to Columbia," Joy said. "I know a couple campuses where they said freshmen can't have cars on campus, and now there are private businesses where they park their cars. I'm not sure what is gained by that."