By Marley Malenfant/reporter
Corban LaFon/The Collegian
SE Campus students and faculty continue to have parking woes while an unfinished science building is under construction.
Expected to be completed by October, students wait for a new building and for a parking spot.
SE Campus has more than 13,000 students enrolled and 2,295 parking spots available because of the construction.
Construction currently takes up the back lot of the campus.
Many students say parking is an issue from 8 to 11 a.m.
“I have to park by the gym, and my class is at 8:30,” said SE student Diana Pham. “My class is all the way on the other side of the building.”
Coming early doesn’t always work for SE physics associate professor Xueyuan Wu.
“My class is at 8:30, and I come at 8:10,” she said. “All the faculty spots are full. I can’t even park in the back because the students fill them up.”
SE student Janet Appau said parking can be random at times.
“Every day, it’s a different spot,” she said. “I never park in the same spot.”
Some students can’t wait for the building to be finished.
“They need to expand the parking,” said SE student Amol Amol. “I know they’re doing that building, but damn.”
Police break down spaces in SE’s six parking lots by the number of student, faculty and handicapped parking.
Lt. Shaun Williams said students are exaggerating parking availability.
“The situation is better this year than last year,” he said. “A lot of times, students have a class on one side, and there will be plenty of spots by New York Street. So they get the impression that they don’t want to park over there at that time.”
Williams said the main issue is exiting the campus.
“We would like to have a traffic light, but that depends on the district budget,” he said. “We would also like to add another exit.”
SE student Duy Nguyen had to make adjustments after coming from another campus.
“This is my first semester at the SE Campus,” he said. “I went to the South Campus, and compared to this campus, parking was a joke. But I learned you just got to come early.”
Assistant professor of English Benita Reed said students must be patient.
“Because of the construction, it’s hard for us,” she said. “The ultimate thing is when the building is done, it will open up for our students. It’s inconvenient, but it’s a good inconvenience.”
