Septembre Russell
Students can temporarily park their vehicles in the yellow lane on Keck Street while unloading their cars or making a brief trip to their apartments or residence halls to retrieve an item, according to Linfield Campus Safety.
The yellow curbs are meant to allow access for Linfield vehicles and vendors, George Lemon, assistant director of campus safety, said.
Despite the unmistakable purpose of these marked curbs, students still disagree with parking regulations.
“[While] unloading groceries we have to park so far away,” senior Amanda DeHass said. “I’m not making six trips to my car; this shouldn’t be that big of a deal.”
Campus Safety frequently issues tickets to the students who choose this behavior despite the rationale behind it, she said.
“The only reason I’m so annoyed is because I have received tickets,” DeHaas said. “The people that haven’t received tickets don’t really know.”
Each student who was issued a parking permit received a packet of information regarding parking regulations, Lemon said. Students are responsible for understanding the regulations inside of the packet provided. The regulations clearly assert that parking is not allowed in areas marked by yellow or red curbs, and that “you may not stop or park your vehicle in a no-parking area for any reason, even if it is ‘just for a minute.’” However, as a courtesy of Campus Safety, parking in the yellow lane is temporarily permissible if students need to load or unload their cars and if they call LCS to make them aware of it.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to do it,” DeHaas said. “I mean, who’s going to take time out of their day to [say] ‘Listen, I’m going to be here.’”
All a student would need to do, Lemon said, is call Campus Safety and describe his or her car and its location.
However pressing the issue of parking along the curbs that are marked with yellow lane may be, other issues require attention. For example, it is ambiguous whether parking is permitted outside of Taylor Hall, Lemon said.
DeHaas said the issue lately has been parking and the lack of overnight spaces.
“If you try to park overnight, and you forget your car is there — I’ve done that, and I got a ticket because they jump on it — they’re out at 7:30 a.m., and they give you a ticket right away,” she said.
The conflict, ASLC Presdent Ashlee Carter said, is one that has been ongoing.
“Since I’ve lived in the HPs this year, I feel like it’s an even bigger issue because parking out there is so minimal,” she said. “Paying that much to live on campus in an apartment, you should have a really good parking spot or at least not have to park way out by the library.”
Carter said she spoke with Lemon about a parking proposal three weeks ago that would have to be appraised by the board of trustees, which meets twice each semester, to be approved. The board of trustees met May 8 and 9; however, the proposal went unmentioned because there was not enough time to accumulate faculty support.
Carter also said she is waiting for the arrival of the new director of campus safety, Bob Cepeda, who will replace the Interim Director of Campus Safety Bill Curtin on May 25.
“I’m going to hopefully meet with him during finals week sometime and at least get an idea of where he’s at,” Carter said. “I want to see what his idea is on our parking situation.”
Campus Safety is working to find additional spots for students to park, Lemon said, and to make parking spaces more definitive, easier and accessible.