Becoming a sophomore at James Madison University was such an exciting time for me. The thing that I had been most excited about was being able to have my car and drive myself to all of my classes instead of walking. On the first day of school I had a 9:35am class and had gotten to the parking deck an hour before my class just in case I wouldn’t be able to find a spot. I had driven around 2 different parking decks in that hour along with driving through parking lots to see if I would be able to find anything before it was time for me to get to class. I ended up not being able to find a single spot and wasn’t able to make it to my first day of math class. I was extremely stressed and emotional about this situation and had no idea what I was going to do for the rest of the year. This had just been the start to the severe anxiety and stress that had been upon me all year when it came to just finding a parking spot in order to get to class on time.
The main issue of the JMU parking decks is the overcrowding. The number of students is continuously growing and the parking deck situation hasn’t gotten any better. Students drive around the parking decks in circles for hours just searching for a single spot and most of the time not being able to even find one. The three main parking decks that I have found impossible to find a spot in are named Warsaw, Grace, and Champs. These three decks are regularly packed especially during the morning when students are rushing to park. Most of the students and friends that I have spoken to have also stated that when they are able to find a spot they don’t leave campus for the entire day even if they have classes that are hours between each other. If you aren’t in the parking decks by at least 8 in the morning then you are going to be most likely out of luck. There is also a huge risk in getting parking tickets as well because some students have no other option then to park in a spot they shouldn’t be parking in. Like myself I have had to park in a spot that wasn’t required for me to park in because I had been driving around for an hour looking and had a very important exam that I could not miss. The stress that had been added from having to park somewhere I wasn’t able to was just the cherry on top on my exam day.
There are so many different things James Madison University can do about this horrible issue that seems to be causing students horrible stress and anger. For starters they could possibly add more floors on a single parking deck just to make it a little bit easier for students. Another thing they could do is to build a whole new deck that would most likely get rid of this issue entirely. Another solution I have thought of is for the buses to be more frequent for students who may not even have cars and have to take a bus that may come an hour before their class even starts. If we are able to have frequent buses coming and going and more drivers this could also completely resolve the entire issue.
This problem needs to be addressed for the sake of the students that have may had their grades and mental health horribly impacted all because they weren’t able to find a spot to make it to their class on time. Until this problem is fixed students including myself are going to continuously struggle and not enjoy the privilege of driving to class.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 