Students and faculty sound off about parking issues at Amarillo College.
By Hannah Houser
Ranger Reporter
As Amarillo College students, we all know a good parking spot is hard to come by.
“I’ve seen a lot of people parking on the streets,” said Connie DeJesus, a senior secretary in the college relations department. “I do hate to see the students parking all along the streets in front of people’s houses.”
The faculty parking lot next to Parcells Hall and the Byrd Business Building is closed, so faculty members also are fighting for parking spots.
“But even when the parking lot is open, it fills up quickly, and a majority of staff members don’t park there,” DeJesus said.
To alleviate the problem, DeJesus suggested looking at other colleges’ parking, such as at West Texas A&M University, and see if they do anything differently.
“It has always been a problem,” she said. “I used to work over at the West Campus, and we parked right in front of our building. I had to get used to the walk. But as employees, we look at it as job security, so we don’t complain.”
Although parking is an issue that affects a majority of students, solutions to the problem are almost as scarce as a parking spot.
Students repeatedly said a logical solution would be to add more parking spaces, but the problem is finding a place to expand.
“I think the parking at AC would be ideal if the student population was a lot less,” said Haley Lintner, a general studies major.
“Parking at AC is definitely not accommodating to the number of students that are currently attending. The furthest I’ve had to park is all the way in the street by the tennis courts. When I know it’s going to be difficult to find a spot, I get up 45 minutes to an hour early and get there early enough to hunt down a parking spot.”
Lintner also suggested that issuing parking permits might help the problem.
It’s not just mornings when parking is a hassle, however. Elizabeth Admire, a sociology major, said parking spots during evening classes also are hard to come by.
“They added a new parking lot and tried to make it better, but to me, it’s not any better than it was last year,” she said.
Because parking may continue to be a problem for years, students recommend getting to school 30 minutes to an hour before class in order to get a decent parking spot.
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