Madison Steff
Staff Writer

Parking on campus has never been a pleasant experience.

But brace yourselves, it is about to get worse.

Beginning in the fall a minimum of 100 parking spaces will be eliminated due to the construction of the new Campus Center, set to break ground in October.

“Parking is already bad enough,” said sophomore liberal studies major Kelly Ince.

The parking lots on First and Second streets will be closed, as will the baseball field parking lot at C Street and Second.

The parking lots and spaces will be used for construction equipment, dirt and staging.

They are expected to remain closed for two years and possibly even longer if a new residence hall is eventually built.

“I have to show up 15 minutes prior to class to find a parking spot, now I’m going to have to schedule my whole day around it. It’s ridiculous,” Sean Elmslie-Britt, a sophomore business major, said.

An Employee Parking Committee consisting of 14 classified staff members, administrators and faculty members has been meeting to discuss the effects the construction will have on campus parking.

Construction might not begin until October or November, but the EPC has decided that the parking changes will take effect immediately when school begins in fall.

The EPC has also been discussing ways to accommodate student parking during the construction.

The most popular alternative to walking a mile to class is to arrange for shuttle parking from the Fairplex.

The shuttle would run every 15 minutes between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. Although this may sound like a good idea, the school would not be able to use this method during September when the Los Angeles County Fair is in town.

“A shuttle works for bigger schools but I don’t think it is the right approach for La Verne,” Kyle Johnson, a senior business major said.

“We aren’t going to be able to run back and fourth to our cars. I have way too much stuff to carry around with me all day,” Ince said.

Some other options include parking on the baseball field or tennis courts and renting them for games and matches from other schools in the area; parking on the land shared with the city at the end of Wheeler; parking at the empty K Mart store on Foothill Boulevard; and increasing cash incentives to carpool, ride bikes or use public transportation.

“Parking should have been taken into account more than it was,” Elmslie-Britt said.

Notifications will be sent before classes end for summer informing students about the parking changes that will take affect when classes begin in fall and again toward the end of summer.

Madison Steff can be reached at msteff@ulv.edu.