Freshmen will have to try harder to lose their 15 now that on-campus parking is available to this year’s freshmen class.
The class of 2015 is the first group of freshmen to be able to park on campus, in Blue lot 153, located by the Human Resources and Training Center off West State Street.
Of the 142 spaces in Blue lot 153, freshmen occupy 120, said Martin Paulins, director of Transportation and Parking Services.
Freshmen can park in the lot for the standard charge of $55 per quarter. This initiative was launched because for the past two years, Parking Services has been unable to fill the 30 student parking lots on campus. However, now all student parking lots are booked.
This year, there are also additional parking spaces offered underneath The Convo, Paulins said.
“The lots are all filled up,” he said. “(Freshmen) were always bringing cars to Athens; they were just parking off-campus. Now, they get the savings of parking in one of the university lots. It’s a win-win.”
Levi Creeger, a freshman studying video production, parks off campus and pays an additional $20 a quarter for his off-campus piece of asphalt.
“Parking on campus is more of a convenient thing than a need,” he said. “I’m planning on signing up for it next quarter.”
Although Blue lot 153 isn’t as close to the center of campus as other lots, students are able to use the campus transit system to travel from their parking space to class.
Parking Services paired with the Office of Student Affairs last year to make the lot available to freshmen.
“Knowing that many of our students already bring cars and purchase lots further from campus, I thought this might provide a safer alternative so that our students don’t have to park their cars quite as far away as some off-campus lots,” Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi said in an email.
Creeger said he appreciates the attention given to the underclassman.
“Just because they’re freshmen doesn’t mean they’re not people,” he said. “Freshmen drive too.”
There are a few spaces left for students wanting to park on campus.
“All surface space and garages are sold out,” Paulins said. “There are a few available in The Ridges, and that’s about it.”
sj950610@ohiou.edu
