Parking perplexes visitors

As the GCSU student body continues to grow larger each year, parking problems at the university continue to grow as well. Students and faculty aren’t the only ones who have had trouble decoding GCSU’s parking lot alphabet. Visitors to the campus have had to dish out cash for violating GCSU parking regulations that some visitors say are unclear.
“Audrey Davis and I were on campus to talk to a marketing class about our business, Salon 2000,” said Deborah Morrow, a Milledgeville business owner. “Some of the students in the class brought us visitor parking passes a few days before we came to the school and told us what area to park in. All the visitor-parking places were full when we arrived but we thought since we had the permits that we could park anywhere and since there were several employee parking spots open, we parked in them. But we were wrong because our cars got towed.”
Morrow said she had asked a student on the way to the class if they could park in the employee spaces since they had the visitor permits and were told they most likely could, but they might get a ticket.
“We thought the worse thing that could happen was that we could get a ticket,” Morrow said. “We didn’t think our cars would be towed.”
Morrow said she would not have known what to do if two students from the marketing class had not been with them when they realized their cars were gone. They ended up having to pay $ 75 in fines to get their cars back.
People from the local business community aren’t the only visitors to the school that have experienced parking problems at GCSU. Some parents visiting their kids at school have complained that designated visitor parking is not clearly marked and there aren’t many visitor spaces located close to the residential halls.
Greg Brown, manager of Parking and Transportation is aware of some of the issues with visitor parking but said they do as much as possible to accommodate visitors on campus.
“We ask visitors to come by the Parking and Transportation office at Bobcat Village first and we give them a permit and a map and then off they go,” Brown said. “We understand that the office is not centrally located to the heart of campus, but we are trying to get that word out to swing by here first, that way you’re not wasting time driving around and maybe illegally parking.”
Haley Reese, a freshman that lives in Foundation Hall said she is sympathetic to visitor parking problems but she isn’t sure what a good solution would be.
“When my family comes to visit they always have a difficult time finding a parking spot close to Foundation Hall, they have even gotten a couple of parking tickets so I think it is a valid issue,” Reese said. “But students have to deal with parking problems everyday, and I am not willing to give up any student spots for more visitor parking until more student parking is made available.”
Kyle Cullars, executive director of Auxiliary Services said they are constantly reevaluating the parking system at GCSU. They hold meetings with student and faculty representatives to discuss current parking issues and problems so everyone can be heard and solutions can be made, but parking is always an issue at colleges and universities.
“I think parking is just one of those things,” Cullers said. “We have an adequate supply of spaces but everybody wants to park at their front door, even if it is only for five minutes.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 2 2007. 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