Students may struggle daily with parking on the Kansas State campus, but everyone has their little tricks that make it easier to get where they need to be.
Kalie Rumbold, senior in agribusiness, said whenever she is in doubt of finding a parking space, she goes to the lot behind Weber Hall.
“Parking on campus is more of a hassle than anything,” Rumbold said. “If you time it right, you’ll find a parking spot. If you time it wrong, you’ll be driving around campus trying to find available space and miss class.”
Other students said they choose to carpool.
“I beg my friends that live off campus for rides,” Olivia Lee, freshman in finance, said. “It is so much easier than driving my own car and losing my parking spot. Mid-afternoon on Sundays, the front lot usually has a lot of empty spots, so I always go scouting for a good spot then.”
According to the K-State Parking Services, the university has a total of 11,500 parking stalls on campus, not including motorcycle parking. These stalls are spread across 13 different parking areas.
The residence halls have exactly 1,635 spots reserved. These spots are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure only those with a pass are parking there.
Off-campus or commuting students are allotted 1,070 stalls on campus, with 500 of them being in the parking garage by the Student Union during daytime hours. Faculty and staff have 2,600 stalls reserved on campus.
All areas on campus are monitored and ticketed Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. After that, anyone is allowed to park mostly anywhere. This excludes the residence hall parking lots, which are monitored 24/7.
Daytime passes are also available when needed from the Parking Services office. Students pay a base rate of $180 for their desired passes, while faculty and staff pass prices are based on salary ranges.
“The biggest thing is to ask the Parking Services if you have a question,” said Jeff Barnes, interim director of Parking Services. “We would love to answer your questions.”
Tickets and appeals are tricky business. There are three full-time employees and eight part-time students that issue tickets on campus. Ticket appeals are sent to be judged by a student and a faculty/staff member in appeals court.
Barnes said if students get a ticket, they should come talk to Parking Services instead of waiting.
“We want to help people before they get tickets,” Barnes said. “I want to help them follow the rules. If they have questions, come ask. … We can’t change a lot of things, I can’t create more stalls, but we are here to help.”
