Letter to the Editor: Parking at UHCL

If you’ve ever been cruising around the parking lot of the Bayou Building at about 4 p.m., you can tell that UHCL is a school in crisis. You will see students rolling by slowly in their cars, heads sticking out of rolled down windows, gazing longingly at parking spots that have already been snatched up. If you happen to be leaving for home at  around 4 p.m., you’ll probably find that a van is slowly creeping up behind you. Just when you expect ninjas to spring out and kidnap you, you realize that what the van owner really wants is the parking spot that you’re about to vacate.

It’s impossible to find parking at UHCL, particularly in the morning around 10 a.m. or in the afternoon around 4 p.m. when most of UHCL’s classes start. I personally know students that have to come to school as much as 3 hours in advance to find a parking spot. If you come too late, you end up having to LITERALLY take a hike. It’s not a pleasant experience coming into class sweaty, out of breath, and 10 minutes late, even though you arrived with plenty of time.

Every semester it seems like parking permits are becoming more and more expensive. In fact, the permits at UHCL are more expensive than the ones at UH main campus. In addition, our enrollment just keeps going up. However, although we seem to have plenty of money for broken Watchfire signs and new buildings that don’t stand up to code, new parking spaces are nowhere to be found.

What can be done? Well, why don’t we use some of that excess money that we pay for our parking permits to build a parking garage? A parking garage is a great idea for a couple of reasons. Firstly, with a parking garage, you can have the most student parking spaces with the least amount of land. UHCL is on a nature preserve, and I know all the students want to do everything in their power to keep it green, and use as little land as possible. Secondly, a parking garage means a lot of students would end up  parking in the shade. In the summer months, that’s a real treat. Finally, a parking garage would solve the overcrowded parking lot, getting rid of both our ‘hikers’ and our ‘ninjas.’

With the recession in full swing, enrollment isn’t going to go down anytime soon. In fact, it’s probably going to go up. I don’t know how much more our parking lot could take. The administration needs to make it a priority to build us a parking garage, or risk students deciding it’s just not worth it to go to UHCL only to fight for too few parking spaces.

Sincerely,
Cresta Bayley
UHCL Student