The Georgia College Parking FrenzyIs there actually a parking problem or an awareness issue?By Keri Davis

MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA – Imagine waking up on time, having a nice breakfast, and actually leaving on time for class. You decide to drive because you are abnormally early for class, plus you are dressed business casual, so you don’t want to be sweaty for your presentation. After driving a few laps in circles around campus, you soon realize there is not a place close to campus to park. A feeling of anxiety comes over you because you know you will be late to class if you do not make a decision, so you drive home and attempt to run.

This is the morning that many students face due to the lack of parking available on the Georgia College campus. Many faculty and

students result to off campus parking options because of the limited amount of Georgia College parking convenient to campus. ____________________________________“I understand everyone’s frustrations when they can’t find a parking spot. I get a lot of calls and emails from people complaining about this, but what you see is, we have parking spaces available, they just aren’t convenient,”

John BowenPresident of Parking and Transportation at

Georgia College.

STUDENTS VS. PARKINGMany students compete to find parking that is convenient to campus, affecting their attendance and punctuality. The majority of students that are affected commute to campus from an off campus residency.

“I struggle to find parking spots near campus and my favorite local shops downtown, I am actually late for a class

Georgia College offers many parking options on campus. The two primary lots for students that drive are located at N. Irwin St. and N. Clarke St. A new lot is being leased at the corner

or W. Thomas St. and Wilkinson St. These photos were taken by this author.

right now because I had to park so far away,” said Marisa Barnes, Sophomore at Georgia College.

Georgia College owns 3,600 parking spots on campus. To park in a college owned space, a parking pass is a required, which is a non-optional, $75 fee included in the semi-annual tuition at Georgia College. Annually, 4,110 parking passes are given out to students on campus, not including the passes purchased by faculty, and there are a total of 6,915 total students on campus.

According to an informal poll on parking conducted by this reporter, 56% of respondents drive to campus and 44% of respondents walk to class. Within these respondents, 28% of respondents park in commuter lots, and 40% of respondents park in two-hour public parking.

Information from Informal Poll conducted by this author

Within the poll, many students included their opinion on whether they feel there are ample spaces in their designated lots. A few respondents included how they are affected by the lack of parking.

“No. It’s so annoying. I have to leave for class 30 minutes early, and even then

sometimes I’m late,” said an anonymous respondent on an informal poll.

The informal poll concluded that 76% of students felt that faculty were allowed more spaces than needed. Of the total respondents, 89% were students, which could affect this data.

The main concern of many students is the required fee for parking. Students do not feel the student parking fee should be required if there is a high demand to park close to campus, but limited spaces.

“The freshman compete for parking all the time, even at the dorms. Every time I go to park at the dorms, I lap the parking lot multiple times and end up parking half a mile away from my dorm. I honestly don’t even know why we have to pay for a parking pass,” said Caitlynn Brooks, freshman at Georgia College.

FACULTY VS. PARKING

Faculty and Staff are considered a part of employee parking at Georgia College. These personnel are top priority when considering a new parking plan. ____________________________________“Parking in the heart of campus is primarily set aside for employee parking. This is the number one guiding principle when deciding new lots and creating new spots,”

John Bowen President of Parking and Transportation at

Georgia College

According to the Georgia College Fact Book for 2016, there are a total of 1,295 employees at Georgia College. There are a total of 331 faculty members at Georgia College.

This year, Georgia College employees purchased 632 parking passes for $85 each, leaving over half of employees without parking passes.

Recently, the city of Milledgeville proposed that the previously unmonitored spots be changed to two-hour parking, to keep parking traffic flowing during peak business hours, which would effect where many faculty members park, adding pressure to many faculty parking lots.

_______________________“There will be, in the near future, some changes and expansion of the two-hour limit controlled spaces; as part of some of the potential changes identified by the comprehensive parking study,”

Gary Thrower Mayor of Milledgeville

Many faculty members will not be affected by the expansion of two-hour controlled parking because they arrive to campus at very early hours, making it easier to find parking on campus.

“I don’t know any logistics behind what I’m paying for when I purchase a parking pass, but I get to work early enough, so I usually don’t have any issues. I trust that Georgia College will do the right thing and preserve the culture and spirit of the campus, so it’s

a delicate balance,” said Jack Karlis, professor at Georgia College.

GEORGIA COLLEGE VS. PARKING

Georgia College offers a large quantity of parking options when considering the small amount of available space for parking lots. Although there are many spaces available, many are not in convenient distances to campus.

Parking on main campus consists of 11 employee lots, three commuter lots, and four perimeter lots. Within these lots, there are 392 employee parking spots, 218 commuter parking spots, 604 perimeter parking spaces, 67 ADA accessible spaces, and 115 special use spaces.

“People need to understand that there may not be large quantities of convenient spots available close to campus, but there are spots available, and we have a shuttle bus system to help people get to campus quickly,” said Bowen.

Currently, Bowen is working on a parking proposal to help satisfy the parking issue on campus. Recently, Georgia College began leasing 25 parking spots at the intersection of Wilkinson St. and W. Thomas St., available to anyone with a valid, Georgia College parking permit.

HOW TO SOLVE THE PARKING MADNESS

During peak class time, I visited the N. Irwin St. parking lot, a perimeter parking location available for student and employee parking. I noticed that Georgia College shuttle busses run every eight minutes from these

parking lots to main campus, and more than half of the lot was completely empty.

“Many students don’t know about the lot on N. Irwin St., and even if they did, most students look for simplicity when getting to campus, but students forget that it could be quicker to plan ahead and park farther away,” said Alison Ahlers, sophomore at Georgia College.

Students are uneducated about the available parking on campus and many students do not plan time to utilize the available, perimeter lots. The lack of planning falls on the affected personnel because it is one’s own responsibility to anticipate travel time to work or class, not the responsibility of the college.

“I can agree, many students are uneducated about the multiple parking options that Georgia College offers, and that is our fault, but we are working to create awareness about available parking on campus and new spaces we will be leasing and creating in the future. We are committed to improving the parking problem for all of students and faculty,” said Bowen.