Fort Smith Four
Covering Local News and Local Issues
Parking Problems
Lauren Schluterman
September 28, 2015
Without a doubt, parking on the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (UAFS) campus is a hot topic. It gets brought up at least once a day, but probably more like once an hour, by every student on campus. Whether they live on campus or not parking, or lack thereof, is the start of every UAFS student’s day. For students who live on campus, they have to be on full alert to walk from their apartments to the campus center, or any of their classes, or they could get hit by the line of cars circling to find an empty parking space. For students who do not live on campus, they have to get to campus at least thirty minutes early and spent a good twenty of that on high alert looking for a parking space. According to UAFS Senior, Kayla McCallister, “You have to get to campus so unbelievably early just to make sure you can find some kind of parking before you are late to class. Finding a parking space usually means slowly circling the parking lot till you see someone pulling out and trying to get to it before someone else does. It also means stalking people who are walking through the parking lot and praying they get in their car and leave so you can get their parking space.” Parking on the UAFS campus has become a very serious game of hide-and-seek; the people walking to their cars try to hide and the people trying to avoid being late to class are seeking out a parking space.
Most of the time there is still parking around if students are really bad at this high stakes game of hide-and-seek or they are just too lazy to get to out of bed thirty minutes early for parking. However, it is in the back of a parking lot on the farthest edge of the campus and they will still probably need to get to campus twenty or thirty minutes early to avoid being late to class. This is what UAFS Sophomore, Savannah Porter, calls the “last resort parking”. “People inevitably will go for closer parking and circle around multiple times looking for a parking space, but after so many times of getting beaten to a parking space and realizing they are going to be late for class anyways, they give up and go find parking in the back of the far away parking lot; hints the name “last resort parking”.” College students are generally not much on walking from one end of campus to the other for a class
they do not want to be in in the first place. It is surprising that students are still going to class at this rate.
This is not to say that college students are lazy, though some definitely are, but several factors play into not wanting to walk from one corner of the campus to the other for a fifty minute class they probably are not even paying attention in. No one wants to walk that far and get all sweaty when they have taken at least an hour to get ready for class, and the distance plus the Arkansas humidity and heat guarantee sweating. A lot of students also go straight from class to work or vice versa; there is not enough time to walk all the way across campus without either being late to class or work, or having to leave them early. The most truthful reason students do not want to park in the back and walk all the way across campus is that they are probably not going to pay any attention in class; they are just there for attendance points and to make sure they do not miss a test or pop quiz. No one wants to walk across campus for a class they care nothing about.
If you take a look at the UAFS campus, many things have changed in the last few years. Most obviously, the name changed from West Ark College to the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, then the dorms were built, and most recently the new art building was built. Now they are in the process of building a new fitness center, which of course made our tuition increase. These buildings do have positives; however, with each building that goes up more parking goes away. They have taken up two sizeable parking lots with the construction of the new art building and the new fitness center, but they have failed to replace these parking spaces which has made it increasingly difficult to find parking. At least 100 spaces have been taken away with this construction and with 8,000 plus students on campus every day that has a significant impact on our campus.
Another problem I have noticed on our campus is a lack of attention to detail. Over the last year or so many administration members have switched positions or been replaced, but their parking spaces have remained reserved. Take for example the dean of the arts department; the art department used to have two deans, however, both have left and someone new has replaced them making him the sole dean of the arts department. The original two deans had their offices in the Vines building, so their parking spaces are of course by the Vines building. With the construction of the Windgate Fine Arts building, however, the new dean’s office has been placed there, so naturally he has a parking space there. If anyone has been keeping count that is three parking spaces reserved for one person and they clearly cannot use all of them. No one has taken the time to correct this mistake which I know does not seem like that yance that is a lack of parking.
big of a deal, but if this has happened with every department there could be twenty parking spaces left unused which is a big deal. There is also a problem with overly reserved parking spaces, with random “blue permit” or “black permit” parking spots that I am fairly sure no one knows who those are for since we do not offer paid parking. I know I am not alone in not knowing what or who these reserved spaces are for, or in noticing that more often than not they are empty. If we go rid of these it would open up about twenty spaces in front of the Health Science building and probably another twenty randomly around campus.
According to multiple students I have spoken to if the university did offer paid parking they would pay top dollar for close parking spaces. UAFS sophomore, Morgan Walker, states, “I hate walking from one end of campus to the other and being late to class, and it is like hunters stalking their prey to get a decent parking space. I would be more than happy to pay a couple hundred dollars to get a front row parking space like they do at Fayetteville.” If our university took the time to listen to students and considered letting us pay for parking they would probably have the money they always say they do not have to replace some of this parking they keep taking away with buildings. I have also had multiple students’ question why we keep constructing buildings, but we cannot build parking garages. I myself have questioned this. I do not know what it cost to build parking garages, but I do know that if we can build these building, we can build parking garages. If the university was doing things intelligently, they would offer paid parking and put that money towards at least one parking garage. After it was constructed they could keep making students pay for parking and bring in money to build more parking garages or to do more renovations and/or build new buildings. It really would solve multiple problems if they would solve the ongoing, frustration that is our parking or lack thereof.
Unfortunately for us, this parking dilemma probably will not be dealt with for a while. I know that I personally will be graduated before a solution is ever even talked about; it is totally possible that my little brother, who will be a freshman in college next fall, will probably be graduated before they discuss a solution. The university is too focused on the current new additions to our campus to care that we cannot find decent parking. Maybe when it is finished they will consider replacing some of the parking they have taken away in the last three years, but I would not bank on that. They have had three years to do something about it and have not seen the need so I doubt they will now. I do not know if complaining about it is going to get us anywhere, but it never hurts. Hopefully they will save us the trouble and take some of my suggestions to make life for UAFS students a little easier sooner rather than later by fixing this anno