Fall break will not only provide students with a break from classes, but also a break from parking pains near Baker University residence halls, Director of the Physical Plant Gary Walbridge said.
Walbridge said the parking lots behind Denious Hall and Irwin Hall will see renovations during the fall break weekend with construction planned Thursday through Oct. 14. Walbridge said a new drainage system from the building has been in place this week to prepare for further changes to the parking lot.
“We heard it might be easier to get those parking lots during fall break because people are going to go home,” Walbridge said.
The parking lot to the west of Irwin will be extended to Ninth Street. The parking lot behind Denious will be paved and marked from the residence hall to Seventh Street, providing more structured parking for students and faculty, Walbridge said.
“Anytime you get striped parking, you get more cars in there,” he said. “You get striped parking, and magically, people start parking straight.”
Walbridge said previous parking problems have not been caused by a lack of parking spaces, but rather by the placement of parking spaces.
“We have enough parking to park all the university cars. I don’t see a day that the entire parking lot by the apartments and Jolliffe is full,” he said. “Some of the fraternities and sororities have parking issues. In the past, what’s happened is sororities spill into Irwin, Irwin spills into Denious and then Denious goes over by Jolliffe.”
Freshman Breanna Gibbs said lack of parking brings the trouble of having to walk from her room in Irwin to her car when carrying inconvenient items.
“It really sucks to do laundry,” she said.
Junior Allison Williams said though she doesn’t have a car, she has noticed the parking situation.
“I see that it’s a problem,” she said. “People are parking on the grass. It makes the school look bad.”
Freshman Kisha Dodson said she thinks the creation of new spots around Irwin should alleviate congestion that has been troublesome this year.
“I think it’s bad because there aren’t any parking spots, so people are parking in the wrong spots. People park in spots that, when people are driving, they can’t get by,” she said.
Junior Tim Haynes said the pavement of the Denious lot is a needed improvement to the quality of the area.
“I’m excited about that because finally, I won’t have to park over by Pulliam to avoid getting dirt on my car,” he said.