Students who attend classes in ETSU’s Niswonger Digital Media Center in Millennium Park are no longer allowed to use the nearby parking garage.The parking garage, located next to the Adelphia Center and behind the Carnegie Hotel, is only for hotel guests and Adelphia employees, said Lanceford Jameson, general manager of the Adelphia Center.

The Carnegie and the Adelphia Center pay rent to Johnson City to use the garage.

“The public building authority owns the parking garage, and the Adelphia Center and the Carnegie absorb the cost of allowing the guests to park there,” Jameson said.

“The long and short of it is that it is there for guests of the hotel,” he said.

At the beginning of the year, signs were posted warning students that they shouldn’t use the garage.

So far, no parking citations have been issued against students.

“We are monitoring the garage and as long as students honor it (the restriction) there should be no problem,” Jameson said.

Problems with students parking in the garage surfaced last fall.

“Really it wasn’t an issue until this past fall when students were inundating the garage,” Jameson said. “The guests were raising issues with it and we were asked to put up a sign.”

James Hales, an ETSU professor who teaches at the Niswonger center, said “The digital media students are concerned because they have class there, and they would like to see something done.”

Hales said that while he couldn’t give permission, it was up to students to decide if they want to take the risk of getting a ticket and park in the garage.

“If they want to gamble, then they can park on the first or second levels,” he said.

Since students were at one time allowed to park there they may be allowed to again.

“At some point there may be a future arrangement where it may be open to students, but I’m not privy to that information,” Jameson said.

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