By Erica BrosnanSpecial to the Chronicle
Hofstra has a huge problem: too many commuters and not enough parking spots.
Despite the fact that a significant percentage of Hofstra students are commuters, Hofstra has only designated one parking lot on the south side of campus to them, which usually fills up before 10 a.m. To park in this lot, you must have three stickers as well as a commuter’s tag visibly displayed on your car.
However, people without the required tags still park in the lot, taking up the already scarce amount of spots meant to be reserved for commuters. Also, Public Safety will sometimes section off a large chunk of spots in the lot and put them on reserve for university events.
Two years ago in a Hofstra survey, students were asked if they would be willing to pay an optional fee in order to ensure that a spot would always be there for them. However, there is little to no consequence for those who park in the commuter lot without tags, and with Hofstra taking away spots in the commuter lot so often, how could they ensure that nobody will take away spots being paid for?
The next best option for getting a spot on campus is the open lot behind C.V. Starr on the opposite side of California Avenue.
However, that lot also fills up quickly as faculty, staff, visitors and students from the residence halls on the other side of campus are free to park there. Commuters who have been unable to find a spot in the commuter lot are better off risking a ticket in Hempstead than trying to find a spot there.
On Hofstra’s commuter services page, they recommend parking on the north side of campus and walking across the unispan. This is one option, but chances of finding spots among the cars that are parked there for the residence halls – and that are most likely not leaving any time soon – is just as likely as finding a spot on the south side.
One option would be to leave earlier. However, for those coming from Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, parts of Manhattan and Eastern Long Island, the drives are unpredictable. While the commute can take 20 minutes some days, other times the same drive can take an hour. Most commuter students leave based on when they need to get to class and do not plan on accounting for having to circle the parking lots for 45 minutes before beginning the trek across campus.
Hofstra has neglected the commuter population for a long time. They have sectioned off one lounge – which can seat about 25 commuters comfortably – on the opposite side of the one commuter lot they’ve designated for the hundreds of commuters on campus.
For a school that advertises itself as commuter friendly, its commuters seem to have to jump through several more hoops than the residential students.
It’s time to start buckling down on cars without commuter stickers parking in the commuter lot, stop taking away the spots that are already designated for us and maybe even reserve a chunk of the open parking lot on the south side of campus for commuters only.