Parking woes continue at GC&SU

Parking continues to be at a premium this semester, which is nothing new at Georgia College & State University.

Parking tickets are on the rise at GC&SU, but not at an astoundingly rapid rate.

“We are writing about 10 more tickets a day than we were at this point last year” explained Ken Vance, director of Public Safety at GC&SU. “We are writing about 350 tickets per week, most are for parking out of the zone that’s specified on the permit.”

“After about mid-way through the semester the tickets written per day usually drops to 50 or 60,” added Vance. “Just remember, if a parking
space looks too good to be true, then it probably is.”

Vance and his team try to give students at GC&SU a one-week buffer after the Week Of Welcome, because they understand that on-campus parking is new to some students.

“You just have to remember something, over a quarter of the students here at GC&SU are new to the school,” explained Vance. “As we get more commuter students from around the area, the problem will only get worse. Not enough students are using the transit system that we have in place here on campus, that would help alleviate some of the congestion that we are seeing in our parking lots.”

The transit system here on campus runs from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday

The already hectic parking situation here on campus will most likely worsen after the parking lots that serve Parks Hall will almost disappear, as they will be the main site for construction equipment while the new library is being built.

“There is a slight chance that GC&SU will acquire the rights to build a parking deck for student use on Clark Street, near Thomas,” said Vance.
“But that is something that has to be voted on by City Council members.”

The proposed parking deck would consist of about 250 spaces, and being that each space on campus averages about four users a day, this would be a good fix to parking problems. Building committees have been started, in an effort to try and raise some money for the proposed deck.

“Plan, have patience, and most of all be prudent,” said Vance. “We are looking at some faculty spaces that aren’t being filled on a day to day basis, and those spaces will most likely be re-zoned for next semester.”

Until a parking deck is in place, drivers will have to deal with the situation at hand. Remember, an A permit allows parking in green, orange and white lined spaces, B is for the orange spaces, and C permits are for white spaces.

Those who have been here a year or two know the parking situation here at GC&SU is not the greatest, but it could be worse.

“University Of Georgia parking is almost non-existent,” said sophomore GC&SU student Patrick Watson. “Freshman aren’t even allowed to have cars on campus there.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 21 2001. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry