Students still struggling to find parking on campus

Although the on-campus student population is down compared to recent years, students still aren’t satisfied with parking availability.

According to Director of Residence Life Tracy Benner, on-campus students made up 52.51% of the population in the fall of 2022, whereas commuters made up 33.5%. In comparison, the pre-pandemic 2019 numbers had on-campus students at 55.56% and commuters at 26.38%.

Even with these changes in residential and commuter status, students are still struggling to find open parking spots.

Sophomore commuter student Alex Vanhorssen said she often has to park near the football stadium and has been late to class before after not being able to find a closer spot.

“I have to park far from class because parking is so full, which can be annoying when there’s bad weather, or I’m in a time crunch,” Vanhorssen said.

In 2021, the Otterbein Police Department released a parking survey that revealed a total of 1,344 student parking spots on campus. Benner said that there were 957 on-campus students and 601 commuters at the beginning of the spring 2023 semester. Assuming all commuter students drive their own cars to campus, that would mean they take up around 45% of the available parking spots.

On the other hand, although not all on-campus traditional undergraduate students have cars on campus, those who do are also struggling with parking availability.

Tashe Lee, a senior residential student, said she often has to park her car in faculty or staff parking spots overnight due to the lack of availability. Lee said she wakes up at 7:20 a.m. each morning to move her car out of the faculty or staff spots to avoid getting a ticket.

Students also expressed their frustration at receiving parking tickets from OPD and the price of these tickets. Junior commuter student Carlos Alamo received a ticket in the spring of 2022 for parking in a spot without a pass.

“I parked by 25 [West Home St.] and went to class, I obviously didn’t have a parking sticker, and I came back after class to a ticket on my car,” Alamo said.

A parking ticket from OPD can range anywhere from $50 to $200 based on the violation, meaning a single ticket can sometimes cost more than a parking pass itself. Parking passes for on-campus students cost $150 for the whole academic year and $110 for commuters.

As of now, there’s no plan to improve parking availability for students. According to the OPD parking survey, the lots with the most available spaces are the 60 Collegeview Road and Center Street parking lots. These lots are located next to The Point and adjacent to Memorial Stadium, respectively.

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