Sophie Higby is a Samford JMC student. The views expressed in this opinion article do not necessarily reflect the views of the Samford Crimson or Samford University.
When I received my acceptance letter from Samford, I was thrilled, thinking it meant that I would be able to attend my classes on campus without issue. However, I soon found out that getting into Samford was only half the battle.
If you can survive driving down Lakeshore at 8 a.m., the next battle is finding a spot on campus to park. It costs 60 dollars to receive a parking pass from Samford for the year, which compared to other schools, is not outrageous. However, that money is a waste because those passes are useless when there are not enough parking spots on campus.
AC Merville, a senior at Samford, said, “It’s frustrating that we pay for parking, yet there aren’t always spots for us. Why do commuters have to park so much farther away than students who live on campus and don’t have to drive and park before class?”
Samford has spent countless time and resources on ensuring that there is always someone ready to give out a ticket for parking in the incorrect spot, but many times that is the only option. If there’s a football or baseball game happening, then I have no choice but to park somewhere that I am “not allowed.” If I am lucky enough to not receive a ticket, there is always a passive aggressive email sent my way.
I have had a multitude of professors come late to class and apologize because they were not even able to find a parking spot. Samford has stated that they have a long term solution in the works, but this needs to be addressed and fixed before the start of the 2023-2024 school year. Samford is growing rapidly, and the lack of parking spots will only become worse with time.
Senior Wheat Bailey said, “I find it inconvenient that I commonly lose commuter parking spaces to Central Campus parking tags. I wish that Samford prioritized the monitoring of parking spots so that commuter students don’t have to be late for class due to searching for parking spots.”
Creating additional parking should take top priority when considering changes for the upcoming school year.
