Written by Guethshina Altena/News Director
With less than half of students living on campus, FIU is considered a commuter school.
The department of Parking and Transportation is one of the biggest departments tahat deals with student, faculty and staff on campus; transportation from one campus to another and moving within the campus from one building to another.
Many students view the quality of service provided differently. Some have concerns and others are satisfied with how diligent the University is when it comes to providing safe and proper transportation for student.
Resident students and commuters disagree on the best way the University can improve their parking problems and what are the mains issues that students encounter on a daily basis.
Tamara Nathai is a student assistant at the Graham Center information desk. She is a senior criminal justice major who commutes to school and parks in Gold Garage.
She has had difficulties finding parking multiple times and has been late to her classes a few times as a result of that. “I know that FIU has a lot of parking garages already but I feel like we should have more parking spots or do a better job at helping students find parking,” she said.
Nathai does not think that the boards outside of the parking garages help a lot. The boards are supposed to tell drivers if there is parking in the gargage but the little info they offer is not sufficient in helping people find parking according to Nathai. “When I used to live on campus, I took the bus to the Engineering Center and now I notice that it improved a lot; the [departure] times are now a lot more frequent and that really helps students,” she said.
“The department is doing a good job when it comes to that.” Nathai recommends other students who drive to get to campus early, about 13 minutes before their class in order to avoid being late since MMC is a busy campus. Kiara Roberson is a sophomore psychology major who recently learned the difficulties of parking on campus.
“I just started driving this semester and since there was not a lot of people here during the winter break, I found it quite easy so far to park and drive around campus” Roberson said Emmalie Morisseau however disagrees. “I have been here all four years and I find the parking situation to be terrible,” the senior computer engineer major said.
“When I come during rush hours, it has taken me as much as 20 minutes to find parking on campus.” Morisseau usually park in Gold Garage and sometimes for both work in school, she has to wake up early to be on campus around 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and find a good parking spot.
“At the Engineering Center, the Parking and Transportation department needs to have more service available to help students with cars over there,” Morisseau said. “I have had a few instances where I was able to find help from them when I need a jumpstart.”
“The one advice I will always have for other students is get here early, as early as you can,” Roberson said. “Try to get here 15 to 20 minutes before the start of your class.”
Adonas Puente is a sophomore psychology major who lives on campus. “For students like me who live on campus, parking is a little easier. There is always parking after students, staff and faculty leave campus and I don’t have to worry about people taking up my spot because residential students have their cars in designated parkings,” he said. Juan Jose is a freshman journalism major who commutes to FIU.
He says he has been late to classes before because of the long delay to find parking on campus. “It’s freaking terrible, it sucks so bad; when I had a car, I had spent an hour looking for parking and I ended up just giving up and parking across the street at Publix,” Jose said. Jose thinks that it’s best to come to school two hours early especially if you have an exam to make sure that you are not late even if it’s the worst case scenario.
Vanessa Louis, a finance major, Alkania Hepburn, nursing major, and Ruth Joseph, marketing major, are three first-year students who live on campus. As residents, they are satisfied with most of the services that the Parking and Transportation department offer. Though they believe that improvements can be made.
Hepburn owned a car that she used to drive on campus, the frustration of not finding parking discouraged her and she just went back home. “Sometimes it’s a good idea to get to campus at least an hour and 30 minutes before class because finding parking can be close to impossible at some hours,” Hepburn said.
Photo Courtoisie of Creative Commons.
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