A Hood driver searches for parking place.

By Natalie Kendall//For years, the parking at Hood College has been a problem for years, with more individuals than parking spaces. Earlier this year, Hood put into place a new parking plan to try to handle the parking dilemma on campus. While it was hopeful that this new parking plan would solve the problems, alas it did not. Ever since the plan was put into place it has been even harder than normal to find parking spaces.

“Throughout the years,” Thurmond Maynard, the director and chief of campus security at Hood College, said, “parking has been an ongoing issue that the College is trying to improve with this plan. With minimal spaces to utilize, it has been a difficult challenge that will need to take time and adjustments.”

Maynard stated that the initiative behind the plan was “to be able to maximize parking lots and have spaces throughout the campus dedicated to different members of the community.” While the reasons behind this plan were valiant, its outcome was less than helpful, at least from the eyes of many students and staff and faculty.

Maynard, gave an in depth analysis about the parking spaces on campus. He said the spaces can be broken up into percentages between commuters, residents, faculty/staff, general parking, and reserved parking. According to him, 34% of the spaces are dedicated to commuters, 30% are for residents, 20% are for faculty/staff, 7% are for general parking, which can include commuters, residents, faculty/staff, and visitors, and 9% is for reserved parking for visitors, motorcycles, handicapped, and contractors.

There are 659 marked parking spaces on Hood College property. Of those parking spaces there are 127 staff/faculty spaces, 198 resident student spaces, and 224 commuter student spaces. While this may seem like a lot of spaces, when you look at the number of spaces in comparison to the number of individuals on campus it becomes quickly apparent how few spaces there really are.

Of the 659 parking spaces on campus, 549 of these are marked for staff/faculty, residents, and commuters, with the last 90 spaces marked for general parking. In comparison, there are 2,437 staff, faculty, and students on campus. This creates a ratio of about four individuals to one parking space. However, this ratio doesn’t account for the amount of visitors on a regular basis or for special events.

While the ratio of overall spaces to individuals is one to four, the ratios between the marked spaces and their designated persons range from one to three for staff/faculty and one to six for commuters. This drastic ratio for commuters has caused a lot of problems since the plan was put in place with a lot of complaints because of the lack of spaces designated for commuters. Maynard said, “Some adjustments were made after implementing the initial plan to dedicate more parking for commuter students, who make up the largest population of the community.” While this is helpful for commuters it hasn’t completely fixed the problem with lack of spaces. “Continued assessments and suggestions will be taken and shared,” Maynard said, “with senior management in an effort to maximize parking on campus.”

While there are 659 parking spaces on campus, 905 people have applied for a parking pass, which is less than half of the total individuals on campus. According to Maynard, everyone who has registered for a parking pass has picked up their parking pass.

While it is a good idea to try to help parking all over Hood College’s campus, the reality of the matter is there is just not enough space for parking. The college will continue to put effort into trying to improve the parking problems on campus. It will be interesting to see where parking on campus will go over the next couple years and if it will ever be solved.