Commuting students are all too familiar with the woes of on-campus parking.
Endlessly searching a full South Stadium lot, paying hefty fines for inventing their own spaces and doing battle with fellow commuters when spots do become available — they’re just facts of life.
But every so often, the situation becomes inexplicably worse.
When spaces are needed for non-student events, they are taken without question.
This past Wednesday’s annexation of the ROTC lot, located behind South Stadium, was only the most recent of these seizures. This happens any time the spaces are needed, and the only warning comes via LSU Parking’s Facebook and
Twitter pages 24 hours before the event.
For students who don’t religiously check these pages, their mornings often begin with the surprise of having to seek parking elsewhere and most likely being late for class.
This is beyond problematic for students expecting their pre-paid parking to remain commuter only. Instead, the lots designated and reserved for commuting students can instantly become off-limits when needed for someone else.
Trying to get a better grasp of the situation, I spoke with Gary Graham, director or Parking, Traffic and Transportation. Sharing little compassion for commuting students, Graham suggested students sign up for Twitter accounts to get earlier notices of when their respective lots will be temporarily annexed for non-student events.
I was seeking a list of future lot closures when I spoke with Graham, but no such list exists. Rather, sections of parking lots are taken as needed, with no regard for the students who are late to class because of it.
Commuters pay $100 annually to park, not a small fee by any means.
And for this payment, we expect our parking spaces to remain reserved for students — not roped off for others.
Students suffer enough stress in the classroom — stop making it worse by taking our parking spaces.
Andrew Robertson is a 23-year-old English writing and culture senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Arobertson
 
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Contact Andrew Robertson at [email protected]