Eryn Lee: One of the most pressing issues at Mercer is the lack of available parking for both students
and faculty alike. However, students living on Campus aren’t the only ones affected by this problem. I
spoke with Erin Moore, a student who commutes to class every day about her thoughts on Mercer’s
parking problem.

Erin Moore: Some general thoughts I have on Mercer’s parking is that while there are some locations for
commuters, there’s not enough. And so with a lot of the class I have, there’s not a lot of spaces or
options for commuter students. And then a lot of commuter students share parking with teachers which
is generally not a problem but with the impact on commuter students, there isn’t enough space and you
end up fighting for spots or parking in the middle of nowhere. Generally, I think they need more spots.
Freshman year it actually wasn’t as bad, but I’ve noticed that especially last semester it was horrible to
trying to find parking in certain areas. You’d be sitting there waiting a couple minutes hoping to find a
spot—Sometimes I had to wait 30 minutes to find a spot. Typically, I didn’t have to wait as much my
freshman year as I do now, even though I have classes around the same time as I did then.
And so I just think that maybe having a parking lot, or a parking deck, or just some sort of commuter-
specific parking lot would help, so there isn’t as much competition.
Another thought I just has is that when there’s events, they close a lot of commuter parking lots. I had to
park sometimes in a field, I’ve even had to park in a dirt road sometime because there was nothing. I’ve
been late to class, and it’s very sad because here you are paying to become a student and going to all
these classes and yet at the same time you’re not able to park somewhere and get to class on time
because of an event or parking issue.
Hopefully by the time I graduate something may have changed. I know it’s not a one-night fix but I hope
they can learn from it and as Mercer continues to grow, so does their ability to have parking for
everyone.

Eryn Lee: It isn’t just upperclassmen who have thoughts on this issue. I also spoke with freshman
Alaina Moore about her conflict with Mercer’s lack of  parking.

Alaina Moore: Parking at Mercer is very limited. There’s not a lot of space for commuters, or even people living
on campus. Teachers and commuters have to compete for parking with people in dorms. It’s very
limited.
What Mercer can do is actually build a parking lot. It’s not gonna ruin the beauty, I know it’s their main
concern, but it’s not going to. It would make things so much easier for everyone. Not just commuters, or
teachers or people on campus. Just a parking lot would make things 10x better.
There’s a certain time of day where there’s no parking no matter where you go. Whether it’s spring
semester or fall semester, it’s always crowded.

More parking lots, please! It’ll make things 10x easier for people both on and off campus. If you love
your professors, if you love your students, it’d be best if you gave as a parking lot. Thank you, Mercer.

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