By From The Editors

At the opening of the new Office of Commuter Students this fall, University administrators patted themselves on the back for their efforts to accommodate the large commuter population. It is appropriate that the new office is located on the north side of campus, because this is where most commuters have been forced to park as the University continues to erect buildings and faculty parking lots in the limited space available to students.

Weeks before school started the University sent letters to all commuting students praising the new office and the creation of an exclusive commuter parking lot. The letter also instructed students to drive to campus a week before classes started to receive a special parking sticker that would provide access to the new lot. However, when they arrived on the first day of classes with what they believed were the golden tickets to stress-free parking, the gates were closed. By 9 a.m., public safety officers were directing commuters to the parking lot by C.V. Starr Hall, but even students who were willing to park by the football field could not find a spot. California Avenue became gridlocked as students waited anxiously to cross Hempstead Turnpike and fight for a spot among the residential halls. If they were lucky they could park near the Physical Fitness Center and practically sprint the entire length of the campus in order to get to class.

This is how most commuters begin their day at the University.

While the University should be commended on their efforts to create a place on campus for commuters to get involved, the administration should be ashamed of making an already problematic parking situation worse. It is wrong to wipe out two student parking lots and then make it seem that they created a new one to counter their actions. There is no new lot, only a fraction of the previous lot decorated with a new sign to keep residents out. The University should never have raised students’ hopes that this year they would only be challenged in the classroom and not the parking lot.

The parking conditions not only subject commuters to daily headaches, but create several safety concerns. As a whole, college students are new drivers and rank in the highest risk category for car insurance. Add to this the stress of trying to find a spot and arrive at class on time and you have herds of inexperienced, stressed out students darting through campus.

Some students, opposed to waiting on the line to cross Hempstead Turnpike, are parking on residential streets off-campus. However, this is not the smartest idea. It should be said that the neighborhood surrounding the University is not among the safest on Long Island. While public safety works diligently to keep the campus community safe, outside the University’s gates, students become more vulnerable. In 2004, a student was abducted and raped on one of the streets that commuters leave their cars.

The poor parking on campus has been the subject of The Chronicle editorials and students rants for many years, but this year the problem has intensified. While the University may not be able to reserve individual spaces for each of its commuting students, there are ways the administrator can remedy or at least prevent the condition from worsening. Perhaps, late passes should be provided to commuters to present to professors with strict penalties for tardiness. Or free valet parking. On a more reasonable note, the University could use some common sense and stop putting buildings where we need to park our cars and stop accepting more students than the University can accommodate. However, it is unlikely that anyone with a check made out to the University will be turned away, but perhaps they could leave their cars at home and the University could send a bus.