The ETSU Student Government Association Senate passed a resolution Tuesday converting parking lot 12 from a faculty parking lot to a student parking lot.
The Parking Lot 12 is located behind the D.P. Culp University Center and is reserved for faculty parking.
“There isn’t a whole lot of parking on the back side of the Culp for students, but students do park there after 3:30 p.m. anyway,” Sen. Dustin Gilmer said.
Rules and regulations allow students to park in certain spots in lot 12 after 3:30 p.m. during the week and any time on the weekends.
“The faculty have the entire parking lot behind the Culp as well as two or three other lots on the other side of the Culp,” Sen. Andrew Young said. “I don’t really see why faculty need parking next to the library because students use the library.”
Young wrote the legislation to convert the lot from a faculty to student.
“When I met with Parking Services, their reason behind it being faculty parking was that when it was a student lot there were never spots open anyway,” Young said. “They said it would be better used if it was faculty parking, and students can use it after 3:30 p.m. anyways, so why should it matter.”
The senate agreed that the parking lot should belong to students improve their access to the library and Culp.
“That parking lot belonged to students first,” Sen. Robby Vance said. “To be fair, I know that Culp and library employees need to the parking, but there is already so much parking for them nearby.”
The Senate passed the resolution in a 23-0 vote.
“Students deserve to have parking next to the library,” Young said. “We pay to be here, we pay their salaries, and we should have first pick when it comes to parking.”
