Staff Writer
John Peters

If you think the parking situation here is going to expand into more spaces, think again.

The College is taking steps to manage parking spots differently; everything from assigning commuters to different lots to conducting a parking survey.

What once were parking lots for residents are now being turned into commuter lots. According to Stephen Potter, assistant director of security, Lot D was designated recently as a commuter parking lot by the College.

"It was necessitated because we don't have enough room for all of the commuter students at given times during the day," Potter said.

Lot D is the parking lot in front of Haffey Hall and has space for about 110 cars. Currently, one row of vehicles in Lot D are dedicated to faculty and staff parking.

Increased enrollment to the College and commuters coming to class at different times of the day, has made finding a spot difficult at certain times. The College is taking steps to manage the parking situation more efficiently.

A parking survey is being conducted by Walker Associates and won't be completed until the end of January to early February. According to project manager Joe Burkart, the firm was hired due to their previous experiences with other colleges.

"They just had experience doing parking management studies," Burkart said. "They've done work at RIT., Cornell and Syracuse University."

According to Burkart, the College wants to determine what quantity of parking spaces is required for the campus.

The College also wants better parking management; they want to know what measures should, or could, be incorporated, be it better management or assigning cars to certain lots.

"I think it's going to be a combination of parking management as far as implementing and enforcing what lots are established for what users," Burkart said. "It's not going to be adding additional parking."

For the survey, the firm is reviewing the number of parking permits that are issued, as well as overall campus capacity of faculty, staff, students and physically counting vehicles. This means every parking lot on campus, including residential and commuter lots.

Burkart hopes that all groups on campus, including students and the Student Government Association (SGA), can review the results of the survey in early March.