Madeleine O’Neill
News Editor
Campus security has run out of parking passes for the remainder of the 2013-2014 school year. A few additional spaces will be made available in temporary lots for students.
No further parking passes will be sold this year, but students who need a parking pass until the end of the semester can still get temporary passes from security, which will allow them to park in the baseball lot. A waiting list has been established for students who will need parking passes in the spring semester, but plans for a temporary lot for spring have not been finalized.
Steve Glick, director of Security and Protective Services, said that running out of parking passes is a new occurrence.
“We’ve never done that before,” he said. “We were doing fine and then all of a sudden there was a rush [of students who needed parking passes].”
Glick explained that high enrollment might have caused the shortage this year, and that because enrollment is expected to drop after the senior class graduates, no permanent changes to parking are currently being considered. The addition of the Gault Family Schoolhouse is also expected to alleviate parking pressures next year.
“The construction in the Schoolhouse means that we can’t use those spaces now,” Glick said. “With construction vehicles going in and out, it seems like we would be asking for trouble.”
Even with the addition of the Schoolhouse lot and a possible enrollment drop, there still remains the possibility that there will be parking shortages in the future.
“Let’s say enrollment goes down, there’s no guarantee that more students won’t want to bring cars to campus,” said Glick. “Students should seriously consider whether they need a vehicle on campus. We have alternative ways to get around, and some cars never get moved.”
Glick also recommended that upperclassmen buy their parking passes as soon as they are available for the next semester to prevent rushes from occurring late in the semester.
For the remainder of the year, however, there will be limited temporary spaces available. Those who want to be added to the spring parking waiting list should contact Steve Glick at SGlick@wooster.edu.