Students say they wonder why faculty members are able to park in student-designated white spaces, while students are unable to park in faculty-designated yellow spots in the university lots.

“I think the problem we have is that people do not have parking passes and their vehicles aren’t registered so when students who are registered go to look for spots they are all taken except for yellow spots, which are supposed to be reserved for faculty,” said sophomore medical science major Matthew Beck.

Senior English pre-law major Kaitlin Hall believes there are not enough parking spots. “I think the problem is because more students have cars [than there are spots]. Hall  said it seems as if there is very little available parking.

Hall said all spaces should be white. “That way there won’t be an issue over what parking space you can be in or not, and rather just park wherever there is an available spot,” explained Hall.

Hall also believes that students who do not need cars, and students who fail to buy  parking passes, should not be allowed to park on campus.

“I think that certain students who truly do not need cars on campus should not be able to have a parking permit. Another issue is that students with cars that are not registered should not be able to continuously park in the lots, since there are many students that pay for the permit to park,” said Hall.

Beck thinks the answer to the parking woes is to make more parking available.

“I think it would fix part of the problem. We ultimately need more parking on campus, preferably near the sport fields so when we have games we can funnel fans there because they take up space for students to park.

Communications Professor James May believes students are parking in the faculty parking spots, which causes faculty to park in the student spots.

“It’s pure laziness that [students] don’t want to walk. They’re late for class, I don’t know, but there are three rows of yellow parking that are marked out for that [in front of the Science Building], and two rows right behind Banks,” said May.

May thinks the parking system should remain the same. “I think it should stay the way it is, but I think that students don’t need to park in the yellow spaces.

Beck admitted to occasionally parking in yellow spaces, but he explained that it is because all the white spaces are filled.

“If we are late for class or need to be somewhere, we need a spot. If the yellow spots are the only spot left then we need to park there so we can attend class. We don’t park there to spite faculty. It is because it is the only spot left for us to take,” said Beck.

It is hardest to find parking around lunchtime, he said.

Beck, who lives in the townhouses, drives to Banks when it rains. “I will drive up to lunch. It is almost impossible to find a white parking spot. I have seen faculty not use yellow spots, and pull into the few white spots that are left. On days like this, I will park in the yellow spots because I know a faculty member took a spot I could’ve parked in so I’ll take their spot in the yellow lines, and if I get a ticket I’ll argue it,” said Beck.

May referred to a gentleman who once worked for Campus Safety who would walk around each day and check to make sure students were parking in the correct spaces, and had parking passes. “He routinely patrolled the parking lots and cited cars that were parked improperly,” said May.

He also believes the school needs a new way to demonstrate vehicle registration. “I think they need to come up with a better marker for the staff vehicles, a better system of identifying vehicles,” May said.

Designated parking is an issue at Passan Hall as well.

Occupational therapy major Kristen Byrne knows the struggle.

“Health Science majors are the most popular at Misericordia. With that being said, the parking at Passan, the health science building, is very limited. There are multiple classes with many students in each one. It does not make sense that there is little to no parking at Passan when there are so many students there at one time,” said Byrne.

Byrne and her friends have had to deal with a lack of parking at Passan Hall. “The best option that my friends and I do is car-pooling. This is the only way to find parking at Passan,” said Byrne.

Byrne said she sees Safety officers ticketing cars at Passan. “I see many students parking in yellow spots, and receiving tickets, when there are no white spots open,” she said.

The answer to this problem is painting all of the parking spaces white, Byrne said. “Yes, this could solve the problem because often there are less professors than students in a building at a time. This ratio means that there should be less parking for the professors and more for the students. Painting them all white could help eliminate the problem of having open yellow, but no white spots,” Byrne explained.

Junior Communications major Sean Lynch was straightforward with his opinion.

“Students are better off parking in one of the cemeteries than trying to find a spot on campus in the middle of the afternoon,” he said.