When students are asked about what life is like on campus, everyone will talk about the beauty of the campus, The Grove, game-days, and Greek life, but somewhere along the way, parking will come up as a negative aspect of this campus. I think I speak for everyone else when I say the parking on campus is hectic because of the limited number of parking spaces. There is nothing worse than not being able to find parking and being late to class because the only available parking was at the law school.
Most of us will not see the day when parking becomes a casual convenience rather than a scene from “Mad Max: Fury Road,” but there are a few simple solutions that could definitely better this campus. We all know being a freshman was sweet because we did not have to worry about commuting to school or living arrangements. It was the best of both worlds because we could walk to class and not have to worry about our car getting towed. Let me make it very clear by saying freshmen do not need cars. They only want them whenever they get tired of campus food. Being able to bring a car as an incoming freshman is a perk many colleges do not offer for first-year students and while it is a perk, it is also not a well thought out decision. Each year, about 4,000 freshmen come to Ole Miss and most of them bring their cars. That is a whole lot of parking spaces being taken up by people who don’t even need a car in the first place. They barely use them, and with the rate of rising incoming freshmen being greater than the rate of parking being built, we are only a few years from being sardines in a can.
Taking away freshmen parking could potentially solve this crisis, but we all know the university cares more about making money than solving these kinds of problems. Sure, the parking garage is a nice touch, but $550 a year compared to the $150 regular commuter’s pass is a little steep. I know there is park-n-ride, but the Jackson Avenue Center gets congested as well. One solution to this is the O.U.T buses that drive all over Oxford to deliver students to their apartments, but the only reason people take those is due to the monstrosity of parking.
With the university building new dorms to accommodate more freshmen, there has to be compensation somewhere for parking. There is a pretty good chance the university and parking ticket people are plotting their next move to make sure there isn’t enough parking, so they can give out more tickets.
Regardless of this matter, parking has to change on this campus. I feel like it is easier to parallel park on a 60-degree hill in San Francisco with a manual than find one parking spot on campus. The university will eventually build more parking places, but instead of doing that, just take away freshmen parking and a majority of this problem will be solved.
