Over spring break the Vista residents got a nasty surprise in the form of an email. Effective next semester, all Vista residents will be required to park in the shuttle lot on A Street rather than in parking lot D behind the residence hall.
While this decision may be a Band-Aid to temporarily ease the parking pain, it is not a long-term solution to Campus parking problems and students should not just accept it.
On March 15 an email announced this change. Along with the move, Vista residents will receive a permit that will mark them for a reserved space the shuttle lot. The lot will also get better lighting, and instead of closing at 11 p.m. the lot will remain open 24 hours and close only from 11 p.m. on Friday to Sunday afternoon.
It is great that the University is finally trying to find a workable solution to this problem, but this solution misses the mark. Either the administrators have not talked to the students, or they just enjoy students yelling at them.
Since the beginning of the year there has been uproar from the La Verne community about the disrespect shown by La Verne students when parking in residential areas.
Complaints have come in that cars are taking away from resident parking space, trash has been left on lawns and cars are left for days at a time. It makes sense that the city would put pressure on the University to make a change and this came in the form of city parking permits.
The University has taken small steps to try and move the parking congestion to the shuttle lot such as stopping the sale of parking permits.
However, this change came too late to have the effect the University wanted. After the email went out, Facebook lit up with angry students commenting on the change and how it was unfair that this decision was made without notifying or even asking student opinion on the change.
The letter even addresses the fact that there will be several more changes made to ease parking problems this year. However the plan to allow in 600 freshmen and likely many transfers will do nothing to take away parking stress.
With seniors on their way out and even more students to fill their places, all this will do is move students safely out of the way and secure them a space to park.
If the rest of the solutions are similar to this, then the stress of the vulture death circle that our parking lots have become over the past year is here to stay.
The only upside that commuters are commenting on with this change is the shuttle lot staying open for 24 hours. Now there will not be a huge rush to move cars to campus every night to attend evening events. This means that once Friday hits, a herd of vehicles will be circling the Vista lot looking for a place to park just in case their owners actually want to access their vehicles during the weekend. Students who have a concern with the parking situation should email parking@laverne.edu.
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.