I would like to respond to Tessa Dyer’s letter about student parking in the Sept. 16 edition of the East Tennessean.
In her letter, she urged students to “consider [themselves] very lucky and quit complaining.” She also stated that we have “ample” and “guaranteed parking at no extra costs to [students].”
My question is, “Are we going to the same school?” Yes, parking at ETSU may be easier than on a larger campus, but does that mean that we don’t have to work to fix the traffic flow problem? No matter how large or small a campus is, if there is not enough space for parking, it will be an issue.
I, for one, don’t mind having to walk across campus to class but I have to find somewhere to put my car before walking becomes an option. We are running out of parking spaces, and parking is not free. Just because we do not pay when we receive a parking sticker does not mean that we are not paying for it. It actually is a large part of the ambiguously labeled “student fees.”
While we are congratulating ourselves on a record enrollment at ETSU, 12,111 students registered for the Fall 2004 semester and it is estimated that 2,013 of those students live on campus. Taking part-time, half-time and other students into account, school officials have devised a number near 9,500 as the number of full- time students.
The ETSU Campus Master Plan (located online at www.etsu.edu/plant/masterplan/masterfile.pdf) shows a table of existing parking. I urge students to look at it.
There are approximately 3,646 parking spaces designated for student use and 1,548 undesignated parking spaces (which students are allowed to use along with anyone else who wishes to do so.) That is a grand total of 5,194 possible parking spaces that students can use.
Someone please make me believe that over half of all registered students (and nearly half of students considered full-time students) are not taking up parking between 8 a.m. and noon Monday through Friday, because, frankly, I don’t buy it.
Heather Laurendeau

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