The Concordian

It seems that almost everyone has complained at some point or another about the parking situation at Concord University’s Athens campus, but what have students, faculty, and staff based these complaints on?  While arguments about whether or not there is enough parking on campus have been an ongoing discussion over the past five years, almost no one has searched deep into the specifics of parking on campus.  Whether a person believes that the parking situation for Concord students, faculty, and staff is under control or not, it is important to realize that there are a lot of different aspects to consider about it. 

First of all, how many students, faculty, and staff are actually charged for parking each semester?  Second of all, how many parking permits are given out to students each year?  And finally, about how many parking spaces are there on campus that are available?  Whether there is enough parking for everyone or whether the parking available is close enough to the campus are purely opinion based questions that will be answered differently by each person that is asked.  However, here are the facts about parking at Concord.

So how many people are actually charged with parking fees during a single semester at Concord?  According to the Business Office of Concord University that is in charge of all tuition and fees issued through the university, 1,759 students, faculty, and staff are charged with parking fees on Concord’s campus out of the 2,538 students that are attending as of this semester.  Out of the total number of students, there are 2,128 full-time students registered and 410 part time students registered.   Another number to consider about these students registered is that 167 of them are graduate students that attend night classes or online classes and thus are not charged any parking fees.  However, these records are based on databases last revised on February 15, 2010 and are able to change as the semester continues.

So how many students are given parking passes during a single semester?  How many parking spaces are available on Athens campus?

Mark Stella, the Director of Public Safety at Concord University, has on record for this semester that there were 1,669 students that were given parking permits whether the student lived on campus or commuted to school.  The majority of these student parking permits for the current semester included commuters, and the greatest number of parking spaces for the students on campus include the commuter parking lots. A current estimation as to the amount of parking spaces available on campus give or take those that are taken up due to different constructions would be about 1,381 parking spaces total.

While some may look at these numbers and recognize that there are more student drivers on campus than there are parking spaces available on campus, it is important to realize that not all student drivers are on campus at the exact same time.  Mark Stella said that concerning Concord’s parking situation, “There are always parking spaces available, just not always convenient parking spaces.”  What he is referring to here is that, while a commuter may not be able to park in their typical parking space at the football field parking lot, there is available but less convenient parking at the parking lot up at the observatory.  Many may also question why such a small university has such a large number of student drivers at their campus, and the answer to this question would be freshman drivers.  Unlike other larger educational institutions, Concord University does allow freshmen to bring their cars onto campus if they wish to.  Parking problem or not, Concord University has attempted to correct the problem with new parking lots here and there, and the difference between the number of students and the number of parking spaces has gone down during these past five years.

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