Day student and north zone residence drivers will soon be allowed to temporarily park in the vacant Duggar Hall parking lot.
Charles Wax, chair of the traffic policy committee, made the request to change the parking zoning of the hall after a member of the traffic committee from the Student Association suggested the idea.
“SA Senator Edward Sanders requested that Duggar Hall become a day student and north zone parking lot,” Wax said. “The student thought it would be a good idea to use the lot for parking, and the traffic policy committee agreed with that.”
Paul Welch, director of support services which oversees a variety of university services including parking, said there were a lot of available parking spaces in the empty lot.
“I think that it will be workable for a short period of time, maybe six months,” Welch said. “We (the university) could utilize that space until then.”
Wax said that Duggar Hall has been closed for renovations, and the parking lot has been almost empty. The only concern would be about the upcoming renovations on the hall that could close the parking lot down entirely within the upcoming year.
“For now it looks like it would be better for us to use it for that time than none at all,” Wax said.
Clay Stamson, director of transportation and parking for the SA, said they were just waiting for the new signs to be made for the parking lot. As of press time the signs had been ordered.
Raleigh Richter, an officer for parking services, said he would not advise any students to park in the lot until the new zoning signs have been posted.
Stamson said MSU parking services and Police Department have been notified of the change in the parking zoning.
“Hopefully this will help to alleviate the parking problem we have with day students,”Stamson said.
Jimmy Abraham, vice president for student affairs, and Gaddis Hunt, chief administrative officer, approved the request submitted by the committee.
Welch said, in the meanwhile anyone that is looking for parking spaces can also take advantage of the university’s shuttle system. Drivers can park near Humphrey Coliseum in any legal parking space with any legal parking decal and then take the maroon route shuttle to Colvard Union. The green route takes the driver back to the coliseum.
Welch said that parking services has made some changes to lessen the parking problems on campus. As of Oct. 15 this year parking services has issued almost 15,500 parking citations. The same time last year there were only about 10,000 issued. This in part due to the increase of parking officers employed by the university. There are seven officers this year compared to last year’s force of three, which had dwindled to only one in January.
Welch also said that anyone operating a vehicle on campus without a decal would be advised to buy one.
“It’s much cheaper to buy a $25 decal than to pay a $50 no-decal citation,” Welch said.