Conditions in the Ezell parking lot and the Mass Communications lot worsened since a snow plow took out several speed bumps and damaged parking stops last year while patches of different-colored asphalt indicate attempts at repair.
The lot, however, which is in front of the $40.1 million School of Concrete and Construction Management (SCCM) building, was not repaired. It became a shared issue between students and faculty who used the lot. On Feb. 24, parking services claimed it would fix the year-old pothole, but not until spring.
MTSU alumni financed the building. However, those funds did not extend to the parking lots.
“Buildings and parking lots are funded differently,” Director of Parking Services Tracy Read said. “Parking lots are strictly funded through our department, not tax dollars.”
Students like Shon King, a freshman who parks in the Mass Communication lot, feel their tuition is not being put to good use.
“You have a bunch of people paying a lot of tuition,” King said. “Basic concrete shouldn’t be that hard.”
However, Read said parking and transportation funding does not come from tuition fees. Instead, she said the funds to pave lots come from “parking fines, citations we write, boots, and parking permit fees.”
Students voiced concern about potential car damage due to the potholes and uneven asphalt.
“It makes it difficult, especially when you’re trying to get out of the parking lots, how there’s that huge dip,” Avery McLean said, a student who frequently parks in the Mass Communications lot. “It always scares me that I’m going to mess up my car.”
Four faculty members, who all wished to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, spoke about the lot’s appearance; they were concerned about how the mangled lots may deter potential students and donors.
“[The entrance] will have to be repaved, not patched, but we would be throwing away good money to do it before the construction of the new [engineering] building is over,” said Read. The building is set to open in Fall 2025.
Read said there are no fixed plans to refurbish the lots and only loose plans to fill the potholes.
“They will get filled, hopefully. Last week [the week of Feb. 17] was our last cold, so we can start working on them,” Read said.
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