By Gabby Wilson – Staff Writer
With the addition of the New Residence Hall this semester, St. Lawrence University Security has worked to make new accommodations for students living in it who have cars on campus. Students living in the New Residence Hall are assigned to park in Lot H, which is the Vilas parking lot. Two additional rows of parking have been added to the Vilas parking lot in order to accommodate the new dorm residents, which required that faculty parking be moved to the front of the Vilas lot. Students who live in the Arts Annex are assigned to park in Lot T, which is located behind the Arts Annex building, and Gaines residents are assigned to park in Lot I, which is also located behind that building.
Although there have been accommodations made for students living in the New Residence Hall, there have been some issues mentioned by students living in the Arts Annex about parking availability behind their building. Emily Liebelt ’16, a student currently living in the Arts Annex says, “This is the first year I’ve seen all the available parking spaces used up in the Annex/Xanadu parking lot. Students who don’t live in the building have been parking and leaving their cars there.” Because she could not find parking, she parked in Vilas and was ticketed by Security. She was able to make an appeal, and did not have to pay the ticket after explaining her situation.
It has also been difficult for residents of the New Dorm to find parking on campus. Brandon O’Connell ’16 notes, “It’s really difficult. There never seems to be enough spots. When they are all full, you are guaranteed a parking ticket, if not multiple.”
Many students have made a point to inform security about the situation in order for the parking availability to be addressed. When Patrick Gagnon, the Director of SLU Security, was asked about the parking situation, he said, “There have not been any major issues with the parking so far this semester. We have only ticketed students in order to bring it to their attention that they should be parking in their correct parking lot assignments.” He also indicated that many students park in the Arts Annex parking lot because it is convenient for them, while he has discovered up to twenty spaces available in the Gaines parking lot on a given morning. If students are able to follow their parking assignments, the problem should be resolved. In order to continue to monitor the problem, Security will continue to ticket students who are not in their correct parking assignments. Gagnon also indicated that the number of tickets given this year have been similar to the number of parking tickets given in previous years.