Story by Emily Neal // Contributing Writer | Photo by John Connor Coulston / Sidelines Archive
According to an email from Parking Services, MTSU recently converted the Abernathy Lot from a green commuter parking lot to a red residential lot due to the higher volume of residents in Deere and Nicks Halls.
Forbes’s list of America’s Top Colleges reported that there are 22,729 students attending MTSU with a 19-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio. MTSU is largely a commuter school with roughly only 15 percent of all undergraduates living on campus. According to the MTSU Parking Services website, any resident with a valid red permit may park in any green or red lots on campus. However, commuters with green parking permits may only park in green lots.
Since 2015, MTSU has converted two different green lots into red and white lots, one being Abernathy and other being the back half of the Greenland Lot.
“Parking is already terrible,” said senior finance major Caleb Hood. “Making another commuter lot into a residential lot makes parking even more hectic. By the time I get to campus, both garages are full and I have to drive for another 10 minutes to find parking when I usually just end up parking in the gravel lot.”
In 2013, MTSU opened two new parking garages to help with the growing parking problem.
“It’s frustrating because all the commuters get confused where to park on campus because it changes year after year, which then leads to us getting parking tickets because we’re used to parking in the same spots,” said Jarod Hernandez, a senior advertising major.
In reference to the new changes, Parking Services is asking students to seek alternative parking.
Amanda Freuler contributed to this article.
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I really do not understand if MTSU is trying to make parking more convenient for on-campus residents and less convenient for commuters because that is what this is starting to feel like. The on-campus residents not only get to park in their own reserved parking lots, but they also get to park in commuter lots as well. With this being the case, why did MTSU feel the need to switch the Abernathy lot from a commuter lot into a resident lot?
Parking has already been extremely stressful for us commuters, and instead of trying to improve it they are doing the exact opposite.
This is my fourth and final year at MTSU. I have been a commuter all of my four years here and so far this year has been the most difficult one for me trying to find parking. Over the past four years, it feels like more and more green lots have been converted into strictly only white or red lots. With over 22,000 students, we should be gaining more green lots, not losing them.
The fact that I have to come to campus thirty minutes before my class starts to find a parking spot is absolutely ridiculous. I haven’t even mentioned that the parking garages often times have some sort of malfunction which forces myself and others to park somewhere else. I would pay good money to get a white parking pass and not have to worry about this issue. I hope something changes to improve parking for future students.
Stupid.