The Parking "Challenge"

Yesterday I experienced the Parking "Challenge" for the umpteenth time this year in a whole new way.  You see with all the construction on campus we have lost tons of our parking.  We knew this was going to happen last year, and it was rumored that a new parking area would be finished by the beginning of this school year.  It wasn't.  Trying to be positive about the situation and thinking of the future of the school, which I'll have to come back and visit if I want to see, I thought about all of the new things that I got to experience as a freshman--dorms, turf field, practice field (even though we had to cross a creek to get to it), new training/weight rooms--and just got up earlier for class so I could try to find a parking spot.  The school rented some parking at Valleydale first semester for overflow and shuttled people back and forth during the day.  A hassle, but not the worst situation. 

Then we were told the extra parking lot would be finished by this semester.  We received an email later that said due to "inclement weather" the parking lot would not be complete for this semester.  That was irritating because in winter months in Ohio don't you expect inclement weather?  Why say it would be done in the first place?  With the Valleydale contract finished I guess the administration decided to turn to a church just off campus for extra parking.  Perhaps they thought it would be better because it's closer and people could walk to campus if they wanted to.  Not a bad alternative, even though the parking area was smaller than Valleydale and your car had to be moved by 5:00 everyday.  I used the shuttle from there off and on this semester.  Some freshmen were randomly selected to park in the dirt/gravel lot that was going to be the new parking lot still under construction until the end of the year.  This worked well enough and I suppose it would've until the end of the semester, but then graduation got moved back onto campus. 

Now the parking lot had to be finished, which meant the 100 or so freshmen that had been parking there no longer had spots.  I know we have to be close to capacity on parking because I've seen signs that say LOT FULL a few times last year and this.  This year it wasn't as frustrating to see the signs because there was extra parking somewhere else--last year there wasn't, but it only happened a couple of days when we had a lot of visitors (i.e. Open House days).  On my way to school I pass the church lot and noticed that it looked fairly full so I figured there would be some spots in the main parking lot.  After driving around for about fifteen minutes--unsuccessfully stalking anyone to their cars--I gave up.  People were already parked illegally and there were several other people driving around like me.  I called my boss in admissions and told her I would probably be a few minutes late and headed towards the church lot.  And guess what?  It was full too.

The only spots available were ones designated for church people only.  I parked there with four other people behind me and we waited on the shuttle.  The shuttle driver arrived and radio-ed campus security to see if we were okay to park there since there were obviously no other spots available.  I was already on the phone with the campus security office.  The officers on the radio said it was okay and the office workers on the phone with me said it was not okay because that broke our contract with the church and put me onhold.  At this point I am definitely late and trying my hardest to remain polite.  One of the other girls waiting is yelling and cursing--we were all very frustrated.  Eventually I was told that I should move over to Las Casas--one of our office buildings that is an old house turned office.  It has very little parking.  Two of us moved because we would be on campus later than 5 and walked to the main part of campus, and the rest stayed.  I was over 15 minutes late (for which I didn't get paid) and the other people were late for class. 

So maybe because it's the week before finals everyone is going to class and sticking around to study or do research in the library and the lots were full, but wouldn't you think if we were anywhere close to capacity that Security would have had an answer to where overflowed overflow parking should go or at least a unified answer to whether or not we could park in the church people's spots--I mean in almost every one of my communications and business courses we discuss planning for the worst possible scenario.  Commuters are a majority of the student population!  To top it off I was not in the mood to hear the whole "parking is a challenge" speech while on the phone yesterday, especially when I've heard it a million times and have all of the benefits that will come from it memorized for tours.  Parking was more than a "challenge" yesterday. 

Ok, that rant/venting was really long ... parking is the one of the only things that has ever really confused or frustrated me about ODU and I guess if I have to be frustrated about something ... anyways ~ yesterday got better really fast--I turned in my last two assignments for Spirituality, including my peace plan (i.e. worldwide disc golf haha jk) and I went to a debate for philosophy club (free food) and an end of the year student leadership banquet (free pizza :) --See I told you people give away free food at events all the time!  The debate was interesting and it's always nice to feel appreciated and be recognized like we were at banquet!  I'll try and put up some pictures from ODU Day later this week--it's time for me to go to my final soccer class!  I'll miss Thursday--getting in one last doctor visit before the insurance changes over ...