Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Opinion

Jake Corbin [Click to enlarge]

It has been said that progress is nothing more than the exchange of one nuisance for another. The University Transportation and Parking Services office is beginning to learn this better than anyone.

Sacramento State is going through a number of changes, all for the better, including the continued construction of a new residence hall near the J Street side of campus.

What will eventually be a leap forward in student living, however, is causing problems now for UTAPS.

The new building - whose construction is over a portion of parking lot No. 2 - took away 400 spots in the area, forcing UTAPS to make a tough decision. Before the fall 2007 semester, officials eliminated regular student parking in the lot to make way for more residence spots.

"The students who live on-campus are a priority for us," said Nancy Fox, senior director of UTAPS. "We have opted to make residence parking in close proximity to where they live. Our philosophy is: When you live here, you park close."

You can't really argue with that logic. There is, however, one small problem: Since the change, many of the residence spots remain empty while the battle for regular student parking rages on.

"If it was needed, I would understand," said Cozette Roberts, sophomore theatre and journalism major, about the parking changes. "But it's not. That lot is never full."

The abundance of empty parking spaces in lot No. 2 hasn't gone unnoticed by UTAPS officials either.

"We needed to make sure we had plenty of space for people who live (there) and it turns out we had too much," said Fox. "We acknowledge that."

As a result, a work order has been placed to convert 30 residence parking spots over to regular student parking and an additional 10 to faculty spots. The parking spaces should be ready before the fall semester begins.

Thirty spots might not be enough, but it's a start.

"I don't think it is going to do much to alleviate (the parking problem), but I think it is a step in the right direction," said Marcella Mojibi, speech pathology graduate student.

"The truth of the matter is, other than giving us the spots that they are, there really isn't much you can do to fix parking on that side of campus. I think they are giving us all they can."

There is the problem. There isn't anything more UTAPS can do. Officials can give back parking spaces, but will it ever be enough?

University officials are making the push to build a bigger and better Sac State, but the only places left to expand are in the parking lots; it's the campus' only unconquered land.

This puts quite the squeeze on UTAPS, because once you build over parking lots, Fox said, you don't get those spots back.

So, what does this mean to us as students?

I hate to say this, but unless we want to curb the future potential of Sac State, students are simply going to have to deal with the parking issues that arise along the way.

It looks like UTAPS won't be the only one dealing with the nuisance of progress.

Jake Corbin can be reached at jcorbin@statehornet.com

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