Hartz: Parking during games a nightmare
After donors and faculty have parked, no spaces are left for anyone else
By Jenny Hartz (Contact)
Monday, November 12th, 2007
We’ve all gotten the pink slip of doom. You see it sitting there with your name on it, and your heart stops. Anger creeps up on you like a ninja in the night. You throw down the slip in frustration. There is no way in hell you are paying another $20 parking ticket.
A lot of times, students bring the tickets upon themselves. Students constantly park in a lot where their parking permit is not valid. Of course, in our defense, it’s hard to keep track of all the colored lots. How am I supposed to remember that the Yellow Lots open at four instead of the usual five, and that the Chartreuse Lot is only open during the winter solstice?
After going to KU for the usual five to seven years, most students can figure out which lots their permits are valid for (about three for the 20,000 people who go to campus daily). However, no one has ever solved the mystery of parking during basketball games.
Basically, any lot within a 10-mile radius of Allen Fieldhouse is closed for Williams Athletics Scholarship Fund members and paying visitors. These lots, according the KU Parking and Transit Web site, are #19, 54, 72, 90, 125 and 127, and are also this week’s lottery number picks. Also, the Allen Fieldhouse parking garage is closed to students.
In addition, streets not even on campus, like Emerald Drive, have signs saying no parking during basketball season. Okay, so what’s a student to do? Read Harry Potter and figure out how to fly a broomstick?
Luckily, the parking department has foreseen this problem. For faculty and staff with valid permits, lots #17, 33, 34, 35, 37, 41 and 61/62 (also the numbers you can call for a great time), are open. For students, lots #34 and 61/62, which are, yep, you guessed it, also the IQ scores of the parking department, are open.
Now, I’m a writing major, but even I can do the math on this one. On campus, there are night classes, tests, SUA activities and other educational opportunities. Also, students are working at places like the library or the writing center. That is about, let’s see, divide the dividend, carry over to the other column, multiply by pi, leave room for a margin of error, and you get, roughly, a lot of people.
And all these students are supposed to fit in two parking lots, yet the staff gets twice that many lots? For every one teacher teaching class or giving a test, there are anywhere from 20 to over 200 students. Plus, these lots are open only to students with permits. Some students might normally walk or bike, but feel uncomfortable doing so at night or can’t when the weather gets too cold. Others might take a bus whose route does not run that late. These students also failed their apparition tests.
On the KU parking and transit Web site, they state the Park and Ride lots, way up by the Lied Center, are open. However, the buses from these lots only run on the half-hour. If your 7:00-9:50 p.m. class runs late or is so far from the bus stop that you miss the 10:00 bus, then you have to wait until 10:30 for the next bus. Plus, this means a student has to get to campus really early to get from the Park and Ride lot to their class on campus.
I definitely think students should have priority over visitors when it comes to parking on campus. We are paying the University for an education, and sports should not stop this, no matter how exciting they may be. KU Parking needs to figure out a way it can open more lots to students with or without permits. Also, parking should give all campus employees special parking passes, so they can park near where they work and not get ticketed. The SRFC already does this for their employees.
Well, I gotta go. It’s only Monday, but I want to stake out my parking spot before the next game.
Hartz is a Stilwell senior in creative writing.
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