Money and Space Equals Parking

BSU is has a Parking Issue.
Natalie Reque

           Evaluate the situation. Bemidji State University does not have enough parking for their students. Within the past couple of school years, Bemidji State University has seen an increase of students enrolling. In 2009-2010 school years, the school saw a 4.2 percent increase of freshmen enrollment according to BSU Today-News and Update. With this increase of students there will be a decrease in space either in the dorms, class rooms, or parking. However, parking has been an issue that has been brought up numerous times. According to David Long, the chief security guard for security who has worked for Bemidji State University since 1988 remembers the day when freshmen and sophomores were not even allowed to have a vehicle on campus, only the juniors and seniors. This was a way that allowed the school to regulate parking more efficiently. Also, there were certain parking lots that if a student bought a pass for that one, they could not park in any other parking lot. “When I started, there was a permit strictly for the Maple Lot and the permit in the Maple Lot was called a G permit. They could not move to Bangsberg. They could not go to Birch or Linden. They had to stay in their lot.” All the lots had their own passes, including the academic lots. 
         When asked, criminal justice major Ejay Seiler said that we should go back to this method. “I’m a senior now and doing this old method where if you bought a permit for just the Bangsberg lot or the Decker lot would help greatly with our parking issue. When that student went to buy a permit for that particular lot and there were only fifty spaces in that lot, well, then he would know every day that he would get a guarantee spot.”

            However, it was the parking committee that decided because of too many complaints they had to make the passes more versatile. “And so then with time, instead of these various different lots that had letters,” said David Long, “they came up with a G2 permit which was general parking which was for all of these lots which weren’t specialty lots.” The parking committee is made up of faculty and staffs that make recommendations send them through for the vice president to decide the final decision. Some of the issues covered are maintenance done on the lots; the maximum minutes of the meters; and the students favorite-the price of the parking tickets.
             A very simple and realistic thought process is used to determine the prices of the tickets. In order for the school to pay back some of the projects around campus and to keep the maintenance up, they need to get money from somewhere. All the projects around campus (like the new water fountain) cost the school a great amount of money. The money from the tickets and passes go straight back to the school for some of these purposes. That is the reason parking passes and ticket prices have gone up over the years.

            So is the parking situation improving? According to David Long it is. “Over the years, people have looked at our parking situation and they have tried to figure out ways of making it better, trying to help the little different groups that have their problems.” He reminisces how when he was a freshman he had to park sometimes all the way on the west side of Bemidji Avenue. Now students complain when they have to park two blocks away from campus. To improve the situation, the school came up with meters, parking cards that work with most of the meters, seven -day passes, and the fourteen- day passes.

            However, according to one disgruntled student, the parking problem and space problem is getting worse with so many new students. “There aren’t’ enough parking spaces, especially since the class behind us had so many extra students,” he said. “It’s a battle every day to just find a spot. People who have passes are even trying to find spots on the streets,” said business major Tyler Johnson who is now a junior at BSU. He has had his car up here since moving in the dorms freshman year. When asked if he thinks parking is the main downfall to living off campus he flatly stated yes. And no to more shuttle services. When asked why he said, “probably because not a lot of people would actually ride it, because the shuttle would only come hourly or so, people need to be places at a certain time.”

            One student, Rachel Schwankle, put it the best way. “I truly think that with more time and everyone working together including students that this problem will be fixed. Let the records show, the problem over the years has been improving and I think it will continue that way….”

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