Are you ready to hear this? The University has a problem with parking. This is old news for most students. Here is a quick recap for those of you who hadn’t noticed the parking problem.

The University has been accused of not having the required amount of handicapped parking spaces. More generally speaking, the University has been accused of not providing enough parking spaces for anyone.

The on-campus students don’t have much to complain about when it comes to availability of parking spaces. Still, they may have a right to complain about the quality of the infamous unpaved Lot 6 overflow. The real complaints about availability of spaces are heard from students who commute.

Three or more cars waiting in the parking lot; hoping that someone will move so they can park their car is a common scenario. In some cases, their class may have already started, which adds to the stress. The only way to avoid this situation is to either park your car on campus at 7 a.m. or walk to class. Well, have no fear. The mighty Undergraduate student government is brewing a plan that may help relieve some of the commuters’ parking woes. For those of you that don’t already know, teachers and other faculty are permitted to park in the commuter parking lots if the faculty/staff lots are full. This doesn’t seem fair since students are not permitted to park in faculty/staff lots if the commuter lots are full.

The University provides about 2,600 commuter parking spaces.

There are roughly 6,000 commuter parking passes currently issued. The facutly and staff are provided with about 2,000 parking spaces. This semester there have been about 2,600 faculty and staff parking passes issued.

USG is proposing a resolution which, if passed, will no longer permit faculty and staff to park in commuter lots. If this resolution passes, it will be a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

Still, USG has a master plan that is to be executed within the next 30 years. The plan involves building three parking garages: one North of the health center, one across the tracks and one North of Offenhauer. The plan also encompasses the expansion of lots 5 and 12 and a restructuring of lot 6 and lot 6 overflow.

The parking garages will be a much more affective weapon in fighting the parking issue than the current resolution. Still, the resolution will be no less appreciated by students. Maybe it will show the faculty just how difficult it can be for a student to find a place to park.