 "Photo: Matt Binter")
Parking lots on K-State are almost completely full by 8:30 a.m., and students are forced to troll up and down each aisle. Throw in a mix of pedestrians and bikers, and the drive to find a parking spot consumes time. The new parking facilities should have made campus parking easier and cheaper, and after a week in school, is the situation any better?
On Aug. 3, 2007, work started on the new parking garage, and after two years the project, is still not finished. Currently, only two of the four floors are open for K-State faculty, staff and students to park in. The new garage will have a total of 1,385 stalls in it, half of which are not yet available.
“We are going to come in under budget, but over our alloted time; we really didn’t have any problems during construction,” said Gary Leitnaker, assistant vice president at the division of human resources. “We really built the garage to relieve the pressures of parking on campus. We recognized the problem, and hopefully we will fill up the new garage every day.”
Leitnaker also said K-State has had issues with the parking situation for years because the campus is relatively condensed and compact.
“Here at K-State, when you buy your parking permit, you are really only buying a hunting license,” said Lisa Loges, sophomore in biology. “There are no guarantees.”
Students currently weigh the option to take the shuttle, walk, or bike, but they can also try to park on university property. However, late arrivals to campus run the risk of not being able to find a spot and being tardy for class.
“The worst day is always Wednesday; that’s when the campus has highest occupancy rate,” said Darwin Abbott, director of parking services at K-State. “Campus is usually full by 8:30 a.m.”
Parking options off campus mostly consist of crowded side streets and a long walk to campus.
“I usually arrive at 9 a.m., and I have plenty of trouble finding a spot to park on campus,” said Cameron Adcox, sophomore in entrepreneurship. “I don’t really think the new parking garage will help anyone because its located on the other side of campus. Its not worth the trouble since I would have to walk all the way to Umberger Hall. I’m not going to be buying a pass to park in the garage.”
Currently, there are fewer parking spaces available because of construction on the parking garage.
“There are over 10,000 stalls on campus; when they started to construct the garage we actually lost over 400 stalls. Right now there are only about 9,600 stalls on campus available for parking,” Abbott said. “In the end, we are really only adding about 700 stalls.”
Most people are unaware that currently students can park for free in the garage. That will change next week when people will have to purchase a regular parking pass and another RFID card. According to parking services’ Web site, the cost of a year long permit is $150 for lots O, R and J, and it costs an additional $10 to have access to the garage. However, that does not guarantee a space within the garage.
Additional fees will apply after 500 cars have parked in the garage daily, according to Leitnaker.
“For the first 500 people there is no additional charge; after 500 people, however, there is a $1.50 per hour charge to park,” Leitnaker said.
K-State officials are confident that the garage will be finished “soon,” in early October.
“The parking garage is almost done; we are shooting for a finish date of the first week in October to have an elevator and the skybridge complete. We still have work to do on the north side, but mainly the contractor just has to finish one thing at a time. Early next week we should have the third floor of the facility done and open for parking. This should really help out the situation on campus,” said Leitnaker.
Compared to other universities, K-State is not the only college campus with problems. Depending on the geography, especially in urban ares, some are forced to pay an arm and a leg just for the right to park their car on university property. In a survey taken by AAA, it costs anywhere from $225 to $1,300 a year to park in the Washington area.
“You really can’t compare K-State’s situation with other campuses; it’s difficult because every campus is different. Our campus is relatively compact, compared to a university like KU, where they have a very long and thin campus,” said Abbott.
In many parts of the country, universities are actually trying to discourage students from bringing their cars to campus.
“We always hear stories about how campuses are always wanting more places to park. It’s convenient to park right next to the classroom and walk a few feet to the door. The reality is there is just not enough space. We are no different from any other university in our situation,” Leitnaker said.
