If case you haven’t noticed, there is a serious problem going on around campus: Parking. Commuters have already faced daily problems with parking: long lines of traffic, unpredictable weather, gas expenses and a long travel time are the least of their concerns at this point in their college years.
What really scares the living daylights out of every commuter on campus is not finding a parking spot when you have less than 10 minutes to get to class. No matter who you are, how early you wake up, how fast you drive nor how long your commute, parking on campus can be a real nightmare.
This fall, SNHU received the largest incoming freshman class. Though this is great news for SNHU, parking on campus that has been seriously affected since the beginning of the semester. Though SNHU always seems to have a quick solution for housing issues, commuter parking doesn’t seem to hit SNHU’s priority list.
As someone who commutes for 45 minutes from Nashua to campus, parking is a constant concern on my mind. Though my classes don’t start till 12 p.m., I wake up almost every day around 5:40 a.m. to hopefully hit the road by 6:50 a.m. If I am more than five minutes behind schedule, I will spend my whole drive to campus worrying about finding a parking spot close to my classes. Fellow SNHU commuters constantly talk about how hard it is to find a good parking spot that is close to their classes.
Although there are a couple of parking options for commuters, I wish you the best of luck finding a spot during the early hours in the morning. The parking lot just behind Belknap Hall would be your first choice if you have class at Robert Frost Hall. This parking lots proximity to SNHU’s most popular locations such as Robert Frost Hall, Belknap Hall, Stark, Exeter and the Student Center, makes this parking lot one that everybody craves. However, finding a spot here is challenging, unless you are willing to wake up really early in the morning.
At 7:30 a.m., you will probably find cars circling around an already full parking lot. Luckily, you might get a second chance thanks to the new lot right on the left side from the Athletic Complex and the one just in front of the Gustafson Center. However, in the end, you are likely to be trapped in the same exact problem over and over again. Unless you have a class later than 1 p.m., you will have a hard time finding a parking spot any time soon before an 8:00 a.m. class. By the way, good luck getting out of the parking lots in Belknap and the Athletic Complex. Somedays, around 4:50 p.m., you will likely find yourself trapped on a long line of cars for a couple of minutes as you try to cross the traffic light.
If you are in a hurry and no longer care about walking, then feel free to park on an empty spot behind Monadnock Hall; that is if you find an empty spot. The lot is now divided between residents and commuters, which makes it even harder to find a spot now. SNHU tries to compensate commuters with its additional commuter parking near the tennis court, however, it doesn’t make sense for a commuter to park all the way to the tennis court if they have less than 5 minutes to walk to a class in Robert Frost Hall.
I think I speak for every commuter when I say that we are not looking to point fingers, what we are really looking for is a quick solution to this ridiculous problem. Next semester, more students will likely join our campus which will make parking a nearly-impossible quest. If you are a resident, you probably don’t need to worry about parking on campus every semester. However, if you are a commuter, then you may want the odds of finding a parking spot to finally work on your favor.
