Ahshun BryantN.C. Central University is known for its rich history as a “first-choice, premier, and global institution,” but just like any other university, NCCU has its flaws.
One flaw that affects way too many students is our campus parking policies.
Students pay a pretty penny to park on university property.
Permit costs vary from $300/year for the residential or commuter parking pass to $475/year for the privilege of legally using the Latham Parking Deck.
Before every home football game, NCCU sends its students an email asking us to move our vehicles to the parking lot behind the BRITE building. If they’re not moved by a certain time, they will be towed.
We’re told that we cannot move to any of the following locations: behind O’Kelly-Riddick Stadium, behind McDougald House, either of the School of Education lots, behind the Criminal Justice Building, in the Hoey circle, next to Farrison-Newton Communications Building, certainly not the Latham deck, and several more lots scattered around campus. Now that’s a long list!
With these parking locations unavailable on game day, as well as the limited parking in the Brite Building lot, many students are left without parking spaces. These students are then at risk of getting ticketed or worse, getting towed.
“It’s terrible,” said senior Arielle Cummings about the parking issues on campus. Cummings is a student who lives off-campus and commutes to class every day.
“I hate that I have to move my car every two hours or if I want to do that I have to park extremely far from campus so I won’t get a $50 ticket.”
I, myself, am a victim of these parking policies as well.
The weekend of homecoming, I had no other choice but to park my car on the side of Chidley due to their not being any available spaces by the Brite Building. The next morning, I woke up to find that my car had been towed.
I, as well as a few other students on campus, do not think that the parking policy is fair, especially considering the amount of money we pay for parking on this campus.
We’re asked to move our vehicles to a parking lot with limited spaces, and if we cannot find a space we’re pretty much out of luck. Instead of Central building a new student union they should expand their parking lots on campus!
“I feel that the parking [policy] is kind of unfair especially on the weekends [because] it’s people that pay about $400 close to $500 just to park in the parking deck,” said sophomore Kevin Omar, a resident here on campus.
“Having to move all the way across campus to the Brite Building I think is wrong and unnecessary.”
All we ask for as students is that we get the parking that we pay for, not be forced to move, and avoid having to worry about getting towed or ticketed.
