Newspaper Page Text
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 3
My brother, can you spare a space ?
As the Atlanta University Center parking woes continue, Morehouse students and faculty think too many students have
cars, and hope Spelman's new parking deck will provide much needed relief for overcrowded lots, streets and alleys.
By Bryan Cambrice
To say that parking in the A.U.C., particularly at More
house, is a problem is an understatement. Students have to
park any and everywhere just to get to class on time, often
at the risk of having their vehicles towed. One disgruntled
brother, of which there are many at Morehouse, summed up
the situation best when he said, “Just look at it. Ain’t too
much you can say. Gee!”
The situation is particularly troublesome for com
muter students, faculty and staff. Timely class attendance,
on the part of both students and faculty, suffer greatly
because of the ensuing competition between the two camps
for campus parking.
“My office mate has missed class because of parking,”
said Dr. Stephen Baker of the English Department.
The Student Government Association has expressed its
concern to the Board of Trustees through Student Trustee,
Michael Toca.
“I think it’s terrible, but I think the student trustees are
doing a lot to take care of it.”
Both students and faculty seem to favor some sort of
expansion of parking facilities, but there are some differ
ences of opinion on how this expansion should be imple
mented.
Dr. Joseph Agee, chairperson of the Modern Foreign
Language department, believes that there have been sig
nificant improvements in parking, and campus facilities,
since he first came here twenty years ago. He feels the
problem is worse now largely because of the greater num
ber of students who have cars.
“In general, there are just too many people with too many
cars. I’m not sure the parking deck is a good idea because
it costs money. Frankly, to control the parking problem,
(Morehouse) must limit the number of cars on campus by
limiting parking to people off campus.” Dr. Agee also
believes this problem is a result of administrative planning.
“Morehouse has expanded more than it should have, and
this current situation is a result of poor planning.”
Many men of Morehouse are in favor of larger parking
facilities in the form of a parking deck. Spelman College
is currently building a parking deck which is scheduled to
be completed by August 1995. It was planned four years
ago to complement the Camille Cosby Center at Spelman,
which is also scheduled to be completed by this fall. This
deck is also a result of the City of Atlanta enforcing its
codes regarding campus expansion and parking, and its
refusal to continue to exempt the A.U.C. from these par
ticular ordinances. The deck will hold 500 cars and there
are varying fees for its use.
Faculty will pay $400 annually. On-Campus students will
pay $700 annually and visiting and commuter will pay $3
daily. Although, by all appearances, the deck seems like a
good idea, many Spelmanites have mixed feelings about it.
While one concerned Spelman student, Kristin Allen,
thinks it is a good idea, others have expressed doubts as to
its effectiveness in rectifying the parking situation fully.
“I was on the parking committee last year, and I don’t feel
they are doing a lot of what they said they were going to do,
and we haven’t met this year like we’re supposed to,”
bemoaned a Spelman student who requested anonymity.
If Morehouse is to have a parking deck how shall it
operate? Dr. Parthenia Franks answered this question quite
succinctly.
“The parking deck should be for the students only. It
should be very nominal. Tickets should be given to prepaid
car owners. There definitely should be separate parking for
faculty and students.”
Campus parking has been a problem ever since students
began to have cars, and it will continue to be one. The
question now is to see whether campus administration
chooses to deal with the issue, and if so, when.
Photos By Greg Ponder
Spelman is constructing a parking lot; whether other schools will have access remains to be seen.
When students are not cramming into the available parking lots, they are packing their
cars up and down side streets, like Eurhlee Street.