Many students and faculty realize that parking has been a main concern for years at Wayne State College, even with the addition of some faculty parking this summer and a new commuter lot last year. Campus security manager, Jason Mrsny, said there were five reserved parking spots added to the south side of Hahn Administration, including stalls for the college’s president, Marysz Rames and vice-president, CD Douglas. On top of that, nine more stalls were also added to the south side of Hahn for faculty and staff.

All parking lots on campus are structured to be designated lots for specific permits rather than having a designated number of stalls for each parking pass letter, such as A, C, D, etc. For example, lot five only allows C permits to park, where lots one, four, nine, ten, and eleven allow all valid permits. “There are overall 1,962 total parking stalls on campus, with 638 stalls in lot 10 and 265 in lot one,” according to Mrsny.

Shirley Allen, Hahn’s mailroom clerk and parking permit helper of Student Financial Services said, “As of Sept. 8, 2021, there was a total of 2,711 parking permits that were sold for the fall semester.” She said once this number was broken down there were 365 A permits, 1,110 permits, 1,178 D permits, 55 H permits, and 3 M permits. Allen noted that both C and D permits come with no charge unless a student were to want or need a second permit. If they needed a second permit, it would cost $50.

In the past, the average number of parking permits that were sold in the fall have been around 2,650 parking permits. Abbie Jueden, project coordinator for Admissions, said the class of 2025 was not the largest freshmen class recorded, but it was one of the larger classes with 801 students. Out of the class of 801 students, about 730 freshmen brought vehicles for the fall semester.

Students living on campus are typically heard complaining about finding a parking spot and walking a far distance to their car. “I believe that there isn’t adequate parking on campus for the number of students and staff. It is also part of the reason that I do not have a car here in Wayne. There aren’t enough parking spaces.” Claire Jensen said.

Commuting students also tend to talk about the struggle to find parking spots available on or near campus. Johanna Boyle said, “As commuters, we are trying to carpool, and we still have problems parking. There are constantly D permits parked in C permit spots. They almost need to build a parking garage.”

Faculty have also seen a shortage of parking available, especially on L Wendt Drive. “I typically get to school before 8 a.m. and can find parking along the Benthack/Brandenburg buildings. It does fill up quickly as it gets later in the day,” Jean Dorcey said.

“We are always talking about parking, and we’re open to discussion on that. We will be reviewing our ten-year plan soon, and parking is a part of that. However, we are pretty landlocked with what we have,” said Mrsny.