By Veronica Hernandez
Every semester Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) experiences an increase in student enrollment. This is great for the university; however, as more students enroll, parking on campus becomes a hassle for students.
Currently, students who drive to school spend around fifteen minutes or more looking for parking. This often results in students arriving late to their classes, which can be a problem for professors with strict attendance and tardiness policies.
“I’ve been late to class a couple of times due to the fact that there will be no parking available, therefore, the only spots available are at about a fifteen minute walk to my class,” said one student, who asked to be referred to as “Jorge”,
TAMIU has offered a temporary solution to the problem through allowing students to purchase a sticker that allows them to park anywhere on campus.
Unfortunately, not all students know about or agree with this.
“Students should not have to pay extra because we already pay a ton of tuition and fees.” said Aileen Parra. Tuition and fees have increased steadily in the past two years, and for some students, paying extra for the sticker is not in their budget.
“Paying for parking would not resolve the problem [in] finding a parking spot. It is unnecessary for that extra charge to our already high tuition fees. I wouldn’t want to pay for parking,” agreed Jorge.
Another temporary solution is the allowing the soccer field to be used briefly as a parking area to reduce car congestion. However, students are only allowed to park for a limited amount of time before they must move their car. This can be a problem for students with back-to-back classes who do not have the time to find parking elsewhere.
Some students believe that these temporary fixes are redundant, and that construction of a new parking lot is imperative.
“The only way to resolve this parking problem would be by building more parking space. Maybe doubling the amount of parking spots would easily resolve the parking problem,” said Jorge.
S.J. Samaniego agreed with Jorge and stated that “TAMIU has to build a parking lot area soon. Students are parking where they shouldn’t and that can cause more traffic, and it puts their cars at risk of getting hit. Having a new parking lot area would save us all so much time,”
