Spring 2009 - Issue 5

The Silversword: Home > Op-Ed > Read Between the Parallel Lines

Read Between the Parallel Lines

Samantha Lewis, Staff Writer

I started attending Chaminade University two years ago as a freshman and ever since I have heard a lot of negative feedback about the parking. Not having a car for my first two years made me oblivious to all the problems that came with having a car and driving to school.

On August 17, I flew into the Honolulu International Airport and hopped into the nearest taxicab. I anxiously sat there while a grouchy middle-aged man drove me to Port 39 to pick up my car that I had shipped from home. Once all the paperwork was squared away, I drove to Chaminade to get my parking permit from the business office before the offices became over-crowded with all the new and returning students. After forking over $215 to pay for my on and off campus parking permit, it got me thinking about why a little green sticker that sits in the bottom left corner of a window costs so much money; considering its only valid for a semester.

Parking at Chaminade SUCKS. Plain and simple. I don’t think that I can make it much clearer than that. When you compare the amount of students that commute to school everyday with the number of parking stalls, it is evident that there aren’t enough for everyone. In the mornings, some students have to circle around the parking lot, hoping that someone is leaving so a stall opens. I can understand parking at large, public universities, like University of Hawaii-Manoa, being difficult. At a smaller university like Chaminade, it is assumed that parking may be a little more accessible and easier to find. Enrollment has gone up this year, and it doesn’t help that there are more people commuting to school. That is a recipe for disaster because more students commuting means more competition.

On top of there not being enough parking stalls, the parking lot that is designated for students, at the top of campus, consists of broken asphalt pieces and loose dirt. Plus, a section of the third road parking lot, that lines the back of the library, which is also for students, has been taken over by the construction workers that are building the new St. Louis School building.

Why haven’t there been any repairs to the parking lot? Why does Saint Louis have to use our parking lot to develop their school? Is it not apparent that there are more students that drive than there are parking stalls? Where is all the money that we pay for the parking permits going? Obviously it isn’t going to fixing the roads or to making more parking for students.