Are you on time to class? Late to class? Doesn’t matter, you will most likely have trouble finding parking on Saint Joseph’s University’s Campus. Found a cool spot to park? Don’t worry Public Safety finds it cool too, so they will issue you a brand new parking ticket for that spot if it is an illegal parking spot. The problem isn’t us, it is the parking situation we have here on this very campus and the parking patrol, Public Safety.
Behind Merion Parking:
To the non-business students or all students who have their classes in Merion, this parking lot behind Merion Hall might as well be the hunger games for parking throughout several times of the day. It happens to be an average sized parking lot, however with our student amount, students are rushing to find parking there every morning and afternoon. Some students end up parking illegally and before you know it, public safety is issuing them a ticket for the day. SJU Public Safety employee Officer Corrigan said, “In the Merion lot I write about 15 tickets a day on average.” Now this is just one officer, think about how many more do the same thing everyday.
Mandeville Parking:
Where the business students attend all their classes, Mandeville Hall is always a busy scene, monday-friday. Even at 9am, that parking lot is already half full. People spend minutes circling that parking lot waiting for someone to leave the lot, which isn’t likely considering some people have all their classes in that building. You must have your parking pass hanging in your car because as soon as you drive in, public safety is watching your roll ready to follow you for that ticket. This parking lot is spread out all around this building but still, your most likely circling the lot with at least a handful of cars waiting for that given moment of someone backing out of your future spot.
Campion Lot Parking:
In the middle of Campion, Lafarge, and Sourin there is a evidently small and secured lot. It’s considered to be in the middle of campus, which is favorable to all students to park in, and yes again it is indeed the smallest lot. Have class in twenty minutes? You will spend that time and more circling the Campion Student lot until someone decides that they are leaving for the day. It happens to be a great location to park, if you can actually get a parking spot. The only time you could probably park in this lot is if you get a spot the night before and leave your car on campus or you get there around 7 or 8am. These times are unrealistic for most students and cause even more frustration.
So where is there left to park on campus? Basically nowhere unless you want to park publicly on the street and risk getting a ticket from the City of Philadelphia. Our students should be more focused on there classes, than spending time finding a parking spot on campus. The parking on this campus is a huge issue, and some students leave campus with either a number of tickets or unable to attend their class that day. With the problem of finding parking, and public safety issuing problems with are parking, we are at a dead end. If you want to learn more about SJU’s ridiculous parking policies and procedures, click here to go to the Public Safety website.
Students, faculty, and staff are all encouraged to voice their complaints and opinions about the parking situation at SJU on the Public Safety website’s Anonymous Tip Box. We need change!
