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The start of a new school year at Wright State generally includes parking issues, but the university says the problem has been exacerbated by more students driving their cars to school.
There are about 17,000 students attending classes on WSU’s main campus. An annual $150 parking pass grants access to nearly 11,000 parking spots.
WSU, which began classes Monday, operates under the assumption that students living on campus don’t need their vehicles to get to class.
“If they expect to be able to get to their car to use it two or three times a day, that’s not realistic,” said Dan Bertsos, director of residence life and housing. “They can walk on this campus.
“For the first two weeks of school, I even come to campus early so I can find a parking space. But once we get past that first two weeks, things settle down.”
Student Emilie Holland lived on campus this summer and had no problems parking. But when her parking pass expired recently she tried to buy a new pass and said she was told there were none available.
“I went to buy one on the first day of school, which is when my parking pass had expired, and they were telling me that they don’t have any,” she said. “Kids are missing school and being late to class 20-to-30 minutes because they can’t find parking spots.”
University spokesman Seth Bauguess said students such as Holland are being offered parking passes to other residential hall lots.
Shuttle buses
The university is encouraging students to park in remote lots and use shuttle buses, which are scheduled to run every 10 minutes. WSU uses five buses to service three routes. They are in operation more than 15 hours each day.
Lot 20 is on the north side of campus near the multipurpose athletic fields and draws many commuters.
“To me, it’s a no-brainer,” said student Stephen Jarman. “It’s cheaper, and I get a guaranteed spot. You can pay the 180 bucks or whatever it is for two semesters right on campus and spend 30 minutes looking for a parking space.”
Bauguess said there is no ticketing at WSU for the first week of the semester, giving students and staff time to adjust to new routines. The university also uses “traffic assistants” during peek times early in the school year to help keep things moving.
Lot 4, located west of the student union and just north of Colonel Glenn Highway, is one of WSU’s largest and most popular commuter lots. It also serves as a residential lot for Hamilton Hall and The Village, which means spots can be hard to find during peak hours.
Parking seems to cause headaches at WSU every year. Last fall hundreds of students signed a petition calling for the university to address the problem, including giving refunds and opening staff-only lots.
Bauguess said WSU’s goal is to sell passes at a ratio no greater than two students for one parking spot, a ratio he said is better than many Ohio universities.
OSU: 36,000 spots
The state’s largest public university — Ohio State — has 16 parking garages and nearly 200 surface lots. Price points for an annual student parking pass range from $115 to $858.
CampusParc, which operates parking at OSU, features a real-time “garage tracker” that allows users to scout out garages that have open spaces. The garages offer 13,000 parking spaces; surface lots have more than 23,000.
The University of Dayton, which has about 10,800 undergraduate and graduate students, charges employees and students $210 for a one-year parking pass. First-year students are not allowed to have a car on campus.
“We have more than enough (parking spaces) for students, faculty, staff and guests,” UD spokesperson Cilla Shindell said.
At Wittenberg University in Springfield, students can reserve their own personal parking space in the card access lot located west of Firestine Hall for $125 per semester.
At Wright State, Bertsos said residential students should consider grabbing desired spots at night when commuters go home.
“Many of them are learning that if you wait until the evening, there’s a lot of spaces on campus,” he said. “And if you’re not going to move your car, you can park it pretty much wherever you want to in the evening and leave it there.”
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