Parking proves to be troublesome for students

First you spend 15 minutes looking for a parking spot. Then you pull out your 50 pound book bag and start the long, hot walk across the desert-like parking lot. Finally, you turn around to try to catch a glimpse of your car, but you cannot even see it. All you see is a seemingly endless ocean of parked cars. Then you realize that you've left one of your books behind. It is difficult for students to be forced to park so far away.
"The parking seems dramatically different from last year," said Kevin Harwell a 21-year-old fine art major at the South Campus. He has always parked in the back of the east parking lot, but this year was the first year he really had no other choice.
Christopher Gully, a 19-year-old film major at the South Campus, thinks that parking is a problem. He said he arrives around 9 a.m. and parks in the west parking lot, behind the M building. He said he has almost gotten into several accidents because of people not paying attention when they are backing out of their space. He also said that he has noticed it getting worse around 11 a.m.
Most students can relate to this, because parking is becoming more of an issue. FCCJ is becoming a state college and with that comes more students. Students will be staying four years instead of two, and the school will also still be admitting new students. For example, this year enrollment for the Downtown campus is up. According to Michael Corby, the college's media relations coordinator, Downtown has 14,305 students this year, and last year they had 13,202. There is now and will be in the future, more students, but where will they park?
Currently, there are no plans to extend the parking lots at the South Campus. According to Cathy Horn, the director of administrative services at South Campus, the parking lots are being monitored, and if there is a need for more parking then they will make plans to have that need met.
The South Campus is not the only campus having parking problems. The Downtown Campus is very crowded too. Students are inventing their own spaces to park. From my observations, students have no other choice but to park in the grass, on the curbs, and in reserved spots. What students may not know is that there are many parking spots available at the ATC building, which is located on Pearl at State Street.
Fortunately, there are long term plans for parking at the Downtown Campus. According to Lynn Mobley, the director of administrative services at the Downtown Campus, there are future plans to build a parking garage, but not for several years.
The parking issue can be helped.
If more students would take late classes it would cut down on the daytime parking jams. The parking lots thin out in the late afternoon. By the time my classes are over I am walking through an empty parking lot to get to my car.
Another thing that students can do is car pool. If someone you know goes to school here too, then ride together. Not only does this save a spot for someone else, but it will also save on gas, which is just icing on the cake.
There are some things we can do to help, but the school needs to address this issue better.
Parking garages would be the best solution. Parking garages would provide safety, shelter, and shade for our cars. It would also provide safety for the students because students would not have to walk out in the open, exposed parking lots. If the school built gated parking garages then people that are not students could not get in, and we would have fewer security problems.
FCCJ needs to address this problem before the parking lots really overflow with students.