The plight of parking

If you've ever circled Main Street in excess of three times searching for an open space, only to find that the one you've landed on the farthest corner of campus (out of necessity, of course) is equipped with one of those detestable ‘QUARTERS ONLY' meters, then perhaps you've experienced the anguish that commuters to Plymouth State have time and again. This may seem surprising to those who travel from dormitory to academic building by foot, as the campus is embellished with several lots. But, if one pays close attention, one will discover that over twenty of these lots are reserved for faculty and staff, while only four lots on campus exist to serve the commuters.

Chelsea Sanders, an undergraduate at the University, commutes to Plymouth from Laconia every weekday. "Luckily, all of my classes are early in the morning, so I can usually park behind Hyde." The lot Sanders referred to is Lot 301, the central-most commuter lot on campus, whose carrying capacity is about 35 vehicles. Across the street from 301 resides commuter Lot 214, which offers a measly dozen spaces.

"One day," Sanders said, "I was late to class. If you're looking for a spot much after ten o'clock, you might as well not even bother [with Lots 301 and 214]."

Adjacent to Lot 301 is Lot 304, which runs along the entire backside of Hyde Hall and is reserved for faculty and staff members. While strolling through Lot 304 on a Tues. afternoon around three o'clock I counted twenty-four vacant spaces. Meanwhile, four students made fruitless laps through 301.

Collin Torrey, a junior, used to commute from Moultonborough to his classes here at Plymouth and commented on the lack of parking options for commuters in respect to the faculty. "It's definitely important for professors and staff members to be able to park in close proximity to the building they need to be in. But, it's no less important for students, who are paying good money for their classes, to be able to find a reasonable parking space when they need to get to these classes."

I was able to speak with a handful of other commuters over the course of the week about their experiences with on-campus parking and what they thought might better accommodate them. Commuter Alex Hart suggested that there be "a commuter lot closer to the front of campus." All of the students unanimously agreed that larger lots would be most helpful, though the lack of building space poses a problem for this option. Commuter Chelsea Sanders proposed a multi-level garage be constructed in one of the existing lots. "If you can't build out," she said, "might as well build up." Though worthy of consideration, a project of such large scale couldn't possibly be carried out during the school months. In the meantime, the strife for spaces persists.