Students Forced To Pay For Parking They Rarely Ever Use

Students at Southern University`s Downtown Campus say it`s almost impossible to find a place to park. Many of them show up an hour before class in hopes of getting a space. "I`ve already paid for a parking sticker but it`s no good. Because I can`t ever find anywhere to park," said student Gayle Whitehurst. The students pay ten dollars for a parking decal that allows them to park in a designated lot. But there are only about 30 spaces they can actually park in. And with hundreds attending classes at the downtown campus, the spots are hard to come by. Students like Laurie Davis say they often end up paying to park in other lots. "$2.50 a day times 4 and this is for a whole semester... What? 2 or 3 months? Or you can go to the meter and risk a ticket," said Davis. But that`s what many students feel forced to do. And they say teachers are aware of the problem. "They give you breaks. So you can go down and put money in the meter," said student Amanda Flores. But they don`t always make it to the meter in time. "I just went on and parked at the church. I don`t park at the meters anymore because I`ve already gotten a ticket," said one flustered student. Students say the university needs to address the issue, so they`ll stop being forced to spend money out of their own pocket. "It makes me mad because we pay a lot of money to go to school. And we can`t even have anywhere to park when we come to class," said Flores. The Chancellor`s office has released this statement in response to the problem: "Southern University is aware of the problem that exists in regards to limited parking at the University`s Downtown Metro Center. The University attributes the problem to increased student enrollment with limited financial resources to expand. In an effort to alleviate this problem, Dr. Ray Belton, (Chancellor) will address the issue upon the purchase of the Metro Center building (610 Texas St.) which will give the University the ability to acquire an existing parking site near the campus and to build a parking garage in the future." No word yet on when that`s going to happen.