Photo courtesy of Rachmaninoff, Wikipedia
As if commuting is not already stressful enough, try to find parking. The odds of snagging a spot in B lot are a thing of the past. Thought you were going to be on time for class? Not a chance. Now that freshman residents are allowed to park on campus, all it has done is make it harder for commuters. As a commuter, I cannot express the angst I have toward this new policy.
After calling Public Safety asking if anything was going to be done to expand parking, they assured me that no action will be taken to accommodate anyone for the parking situation. He claimed that there is lots of parking in our D lot, to which I beg to differ. I am constantly late to class because I drive around the parking lot for at least 10 minutes frantically searching for a spot, only to end up in D lot, practically on Route 202, to rush to class and be marked as late anyway. Since Ramapo loves changing policies, perhaps they can enact a policy where anyone inconvenienced by lack of parking is not at fault.
It is evident that there is a serious lack of parking on campus but Ramapo refusing to acknowledge it concerns me and I am sure many others. Ramapo’s website claims "Approximately 3,000 students commute to and from Ramapo College, making commuters one of the largest groups of students on campus and an essential part of Ramapo’s family," but it does not feel like so in the slightest. This new policy has made more students, unable to find spots, want to park in residence areas such as the CPAs and Overlook.
Ramapo should revert to its old policy of freshman not being allowed to park on campus unless necessary for work. Personally, I know many others and myself if we don’t find a spot after 10 minutes of searching, we drive up to the CPAs and leave our cars there and risk a ticket. By doing this it would significantly open up parking spaces and without the agitation from students feeling as though they have been cheated, they would be more compliant and more likely to park in the commuter lot rather than areas designated to residents.
I had scrolled back to August on the Commuter Affairs Twitter account, where there is no mention that this issue will be addressed. In fact, there is no recognition that this is even an issue. No one wants to publicly recognize that there is even a problem with the parking situation. I have signed a petition on change.org to remove freshman parking and to bring attention to the issue, and I urge everyone else to do the same.
cbeatric@ramapo.edu
