Parking at BYU is a problem. I find that I regularly have to troll the faculty and staff parking lots near my office, waiting until someone pulls out or proceed to further lots. Last week, I found a space in an “A” lot but stayed in my car for an hour to grade papers. I observed the lot filling up with mostly young drivers with backpacks. One said he was indeed a student but because the university does not provide sufficient “Y” parking, his choices are to either park by Wendy’s and risk being towed, or park in the “A” lot.
I previously complained about parking to my dean and associate dean. They contacted the parking office but concluded that nothing could really be done. A representative from the parking office told me that parking is not given sufficient resources or attention because it is not important in the eyes of the university administration.
I believe we could solve the parking problem by utilizing two underutilized areas of parking.
The first is the stadium lot. Shuttle buses could traverse the stadium and the campus loop throughout the day. This is what faculty member Steve Nadauld said they did when he was president of Weber State, and it solved the problem.
The other area of underutilized space is the “BYU Officials” spaces north of the ASB. I checked the other day at 10:30 a.m. and observed that half of those spaces were open. It is no wonder the administration does not seem to feel the pain of the parking problem — they have no pain. I wonder if the BYU administrators would be more motivated to improve parking if they had to troll “A” and “Y” lots looking for open spaces like the rest of us.
SCOTT SAMPSON
Marriott School of Business
