One of my least favorite things at the University of Memphis is parking every morning before class. I lost count of how many classes I’ve skipped because I didn’t feel like parking in the morning a long time ago.
The Central Lot, which is closer to a majority of my classes, is not easily accessible after 10 a.m. If I give up there I go to the Southern Lot where I will park next to the recreation center, which is across campus from my classes.
Many students will risk tickets, or even worse having their car towed just to get to class on time.
This University already has a parking problem and has for some time, but they’ve decided to make it worse.
The news that the University of Memphis will lose about 700 parking spaces due to construction of a new land bridge and recreation center came last week. This construction will have a negative impact on the biggest population of students at Memphis.
I, like 17,009 other U of M nononline students, commute to and from school every day. Memphis is a commuter’s school; I don’t know many, if any, students that live on the U of M campus.
The administration offered to build an $18.6 million parking garage, which they would raise money for by raising student fees.
Students would be paying for the parking garage for the next 30 years when the new recreation center and land bridge will be in need of repair or updating.
Instead of going towards more professors, updates to the library, more and updated labs for students, or even a new healthy food option for campus, the students will be paying to fix a problem caused by an attempt to make the campus more attractive.
Basically, the University wants students to pay to fix a problem they did not create, despite the administration putting blame for the placement of the new recreation center on the Student Government Association. There were no other spots picked out for the new center.
Where else were they going to put the recreation center that isn’t going to cause a massive parking problem?
It has to be on campus and easily accessible so Park Campus is out. There has to be enough room for all of the improvements and add-ons so the only other option would be the Central Lot and that would be a worse parking problem than the current one facing students.
The University is boxed by surrounding neighborhoods and commercial properties. The only place to put the new recreation center would be where the existing one already is.
Students are going to suffer with increased fees for a parking garage that would make it easier to go to class while the basketball and football teams are going to benefit from new $30 million facilities that athletic boosters paid for.
If the administration cannot come up with money for the parking garage without increasing student fees then there should be no new recreation center and no new land bridge until they can.
