Spring Break
The quarter mile blues
By Chris Lawson
Issue date: 1/12/10 Section: News
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At the beginning of each semester, unless students plan on getting to school around 7 a.m., their car will not be anywhere close to where their classes are.
"I use to have class around 10:30 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but the parking lot was too crazy," said Delia Valdez, 21, accounting major. "I have even been cussed out [for taking someone's spot]. Now I take classes early in the morning to avoid the vicious people."
Valdez' experience was truly unfortunate. She may have the right idea though. Before students topple the walls of the administration building and demand that teachers give up their parking spots until something is done, students should ponder what they can do for themselves.
Here are a few tips to help steer your mind in the right direction; get to campus at least 30 minutes before your class, carpool if you have the option and if you are going to be on campus all day, then park farther away.
According to officials, the overwhelming need for parking only lasted through the first week of school.
Seeing that the parking situation posed an immediate problem the administrators took swift action by roping off various vacant areas around campus creating 400-500 additional parking spots within days. They also positioned an officer near the stop sign in front of the teachers' parking lot to efficiently finesse the flow of traffic from W.W. Thorne.
None of these problems could have been anticipated or avoided, officials said. This year, Lone Star College-North Harris has seen its biggest increase in students. Dr. Bennie Lambert, vice president of Student Development, feels this is a "great problem to have."
"The North Harris campus grew by the biggest percentage of any college in the system," Lambert said.
Between the fall semester of 2008 and the fall semester of 2009, the North Harris student body has increased by roughly 16 percent.
Not all of this increase is attributed to students on campus. North Harris has seen a rise in virtually every type of course offered including distance learning and online courses.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Fort Worth Movers
posted 1/20/10 @ 2:49 PM CST
It's understandable that parking space is limited and everyone kind of has to deal with that one way or another. Hopefully the situation will improve in the future. (Continued…)
cdar1025
posted 4/01/10 @ 10:06 PM CST
I can understand the reason why parking is so tight this year. However, I have always thought that faculty and staff have far too much reserved parking (even before the increase in students this year). (Continued…)
kedes
posted 4/06/10 @ 1:06 PM CST
I thank you for the opportunity to share a portion of my moments in time with future generations.
editing services
posted 5/25/10 @ 8:24 AM CST
Probably, there's need to change the some parameters of parking system. Personally,, I understand the suffering people.
pre cut mats
posted 8/03/10 @ 1:24 PM CST
Parking is an issue at almost every school I've heard about. It's just a fact of life - land is expensive and schools don't have the money to expand much more unless it's for academic reasons. (Continued…)
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