Drury Security has recently hired a new group of officers. With more security patrolling campus, the amount of parking tickets has skyrocketed. Students have reported parking in spots that they have frequented for semesters and coming back to a white sheet flagging from below their wipers.  

Many students have mentioned that the place that they are ticketed to the most is the OBT lot. The lot, unlike every other on campus, does not have a sign stating whether it is commuter or residential. When questioned, Drury Security reminded students that there was an email sent out earlier in the semester that informed campus that the lot was commuter only.  

Drury Lane and FSC parking have also been hot spots for citations. Students have taken to Snapchat to warn one another about security officers chalking tires to measure how long cars have been parked on Drury Lane. Students have begun to look out for each other, knowing that most times, they do not have a choice but to take a chance to be ticketed.  

The biggest complaint looming over campus is the inconvenient placement of both commuter and residential parking lots. Though there are eight commuter parking lots, five of them are on the outer edges of campus, leaving commuter students to trudge through every sort of weather, and in areas that are not well populated, therefore unsafe. Residential parking illuminates a similar issue.  

Residents find themselves traveling on foot from their dwellings. Convenient for Freshmen who live on FSC circle, but majorly inconvenient for those in the Quad, College Park, Jefferson, and the Phases. These students are limited to lots that are closest to their homes, or smaller lots like Lot A by FSC, the lots behind the dorms, that are already overfilled by first-year students and spilling onto Calhoun, or Lot B that is so narrow my VW Beetle cannot make it through the lanes to pull out.  

The lack of parking is only emphasized by the recent construction of the O’Reilly Enterprise Center. Students are left wondering why the largest parking lot was sacrificed for a school that was already well-functioning in Breech. A building that is now left empty and unused. There are rumors of what will become of Breech, but nobody knows for sure. Furthering student’s frustrations with the development of the newest building on campus.  

Rather than charging students for parking violations, why not get the money at the beginning of each school year by charging them for a parking pass that allows them to park in any of the lots on campus so that they can park where they need to, instead of where they can. All while crossing their fingers and hoping that they do not have to return to their vehicle with a $25 fine waiting for them, or worse, an empty parking spot.  

Article written by Casey Jones