The trend of creating larger plots for black, endless seas of pavement in the far reaches of campus has offered little solution to the parking problems on campus. It would be wiser for MSU leaders to look to greener pastures.
More than 60 graduate students expressed their concerns Wednesday at the Council of Graduate Students monthly meeting after learning of All-University Traffic Committee recommendations to move designated graduate parking areas from central campus lots along Shaw Lane to more remote campus areas, such as Farm Lane and Mount Hope Road.
The recommended moves are part of the traffic committee’s response to university officials request to increase green space on campus as part of the 2020 Vision master plan.
The plan calls for the removal of the massive parking lots along Shaw Lane to make way for green space and academic structures.
In 1997, university officials opted to create the parking spaces between north and south Shaw lanes near Anthony Hall after the red, brick agriculture pavilion that once stood there was demolished.
Unfortunately, for graduate students and everyone else who commutes around campus, parking is, and has been, one of the biggest infrastructure problems faced by MSU. And the school hasn’t done an adequate job addressing it.
All of the larger campus flat lots exist on the far reaches of campus. And virtually no major parking facilities are available on the north side of campus.
Although it is considerably more expensive to create under and above-ground parking ramps, it would do the MSU community better to have more of those structures as opposed to the hideous black-sea lots in the far corners of campus.
The recently built parking structure south of the Communication Arts and Sciences Building along the Trowbridge Road extension, and the structure being reconstructed along Shaw Lane are two ideal creations that can best help conquer parking dilemmas.
The new Shaw Lane ramp is set to be the main hub for bus transportation through campus and the new Trowbridge Road ramp already serves as a bus stop. These ramps set the example that should be a beautiful marriage between parking and public transportation around campus.
People should be expected to park farther from their destinations and not complain about it so long as reliable public transportation can take them back and forth.
But graduate students should not feel the brunt of the blow as parking space is squeezed while MSU receives its 2020 facelift. All parties, including faculty, staff and undergraduates should have to share the inconvenient burdens of parking farther away until adequate structures are built throughout campus.
Parking structures and the Capital Area Transportation Authority are the answers to MSU’s parking nightmares. The marriage of the two provides ample parking opportunity as well as clearing room for more green space and a more attractive campus.
