For the past two semesters, there’s been a constant buzz around campus surrounding parking issues. Although a lot of it has been from residential students, this issue extends campus-wide including employees, faculty and commuter students.

In the 25 years that he has worked at Le Moyne, Director of Security, John O’Brien, said that parking has generally been an issue for different reasons. Whether it’s not enough parking for residents or not enough convenient parking for commuters and employees.

“Parking in one way or another tends to be a focal point of people’s attention more so than it should be,” O’Brien said. “[It] is very expensive to rebuild and redesign and relocate.” It costs millions of dollars, he added and the college is very careful not to spend money on parking if they can find better uses.

O’Brien pointed out that over the years Le Moyne has changed: new buildings were built, some on land that used to be used for parking, and as a result, the parking areas have been redeveloped or relocated.

“When the college built the new science building, in doing so, we lost 225 parking spaces [for employees],” O’Brien said. “We also built, before that, a new athletic area [lacrosse/soccer field], which was also a parking lot.” Therefore a lot of parking had to be relocated.

O’Brien added that it is more difficult than people would think to reposition parking and right now, Le Moyne is losing a lot of available space to put things.

“I don’t know what the future holds for more parking lots honestly,” he said.

A large part of the appeal at Le Moyne is its beautiful scenery. O’Brien stated that it’s always good to be cautious of how you blend it with elements necessary for campus life, specifically parking lots.

“It’s trying to find the right balance and yet making sure we satisfy all the needs of the people,” said O’Brien.

“Lots of people voice their concern; lots of people have an answer…I’ve always tried to listen, understand and explain and when necessary and appropriate, carry that message to my boss and others.” O’Brien said. “I hear often from faculty and students and how we should do things and I think that over time, we have done a decent job in managing the movement of the 1600 [or more] students that live on campus.”

Junior Ashley Colon said that as a commuter, parking isn’t the worst but it isn’t the best either.

“I wish we had more of a selection or option of where to park, rather than just having only two lots to choose from,” said Colon. “Personally, since my freshmen year of college, I’ve noticed that there are way more commuters with cars than on-campus students with cars, so that should be another factor to consider.”

Sophomore Emily Allen adds,“[Parking] definitely is a problem. I don’t know about other places on campus but just looking at the back of Lot E, it’s overcrowded.”

There has also been a few floating comments about the idea of not allowing freshman to have their cars on campus. However,  O’Brien does not agree. O’Brien believes that it is not going to solve the amount of parking in other lots such as those for employees, events or commuters. In addition, the moment you tell a group of people no, there will be a lot of exceptions brought up, which will make some people upset and offended.

“We’re trying to do our best; we’re trying to work within the system that is very congested but yet, not throwing all the rules out,” O’Brien added, pointing out that this past year, security has been very lenient in ticketing; the number of tickets has dramatically dropped.

Yet that answer does is not still satisfying for many.

“I think there is not enough parking for students and faculty,” Junior McKenzie Doig stated. Doig added that it is absurd to tell students to park in Lot D, but the moment some leave in the morning to go to internships, nursing school, etc. and come back in the afternoon, there are hardly any available spots.

“I want as many people as possible to understand that a great deal of effort and time goes into certain results and it may not be the results that you particularly like but there are so many different people that you are trying to satisfy and to do the right thing,” said O’Brien. “We’re trying to manage the conditions to the best of our ability, to the safest we can make it. In the end I would always ask that people express patience and understand that because things aren’t to your way of liking, doesn’t mean that people aren’t trying and if they have a disagreement, to do it in a polite and professional way, not in an argumentative way that many choose to do.”