As campus construction plans come to fruition, faculty and students talk about the impact to campus parking and their concerns on parking availability in the future..

The Board of Regents announced on Feb. 24 the new nursing building will be built north of Faculty Hall with plans to be open by January 2025. However, that space is now used for parking. 

Senior graphic design major and commuter student Meg Slatton said parking is already tight as is and is glad to be finishing undergraduate track, so she won’t have to deal with the possibility of limited parking. 

“Today [Monday, April 3], I went to two different parking lots, and there were no empty spaces, and depending on the time of day and how many classes are going on at that time, usually from nine to noon, that’s the busiest time for parking,” Slatton said. “I’m feeling really lucky to graduate soon.”

Slatton typically parks toward the back of the Regents parking lot. However, with one parking lot impacted, Slatton said all parking across the academic side of campus will have to deal with the overflow. 

“There are usually a few spaces free in the back, but in the future, I don’t know if that will be the same,” Slatton said. 

Senior finance major Laney Priest has been a commuter student since fall 2019 and hasn’t noticed campus parking changes over the years, but sees how construction north of Faculty Hall could cause issues.

“I would not go as far as saying parking is the biggest issue that we might have, but I do believe that it can be a problem because we do have a lot of commuters,” Priest said. 

Beyond a possible shortage of parking space, Priest said some of the current parking lots on campus might need maintenance.

Priest parks across from the Business Building in the parking lot near the Pi Kappa Alpha house, and as of right now, it is an unlined gravel parking lot. 

“Parking has always been a small issue at Murray even with changes, which is normal for a university with almost 10,000 students,” Priest said. “I do believe we need to focus more on making sure all of the parking lots are paved.”

Along with students, faculty members also have discussed their concerns for the future of campus parking. Parking was on the agenda for the Faculty Senate’s Tuesday, April 5 meeting, in which members voiced concerns about where faculty would be expected to park.

Senator Brian Bourke mentioned parking that was changed from both faculty parking, which is color coded as blue, and commuter parking, which is color coded as red, to just commuter parking. 

“Bigger lots behind the science buildings used to be blue and red,” Bourke said. “Now they’re just red…We’ve lost a lot of parking available to us in this timeframe.” 

The Faculty Senate Parking Committee has not been updated on what the future of parking will look like.

Facilities Management Director Jason Youngblood said plans for parking have not yet been solidified, and plans are still in the “infancy stage,” but new parking will be added.

“The only thing I can say for certain is that we generally plan to have alternative parking when major construction projects take place, and our goal is to have a net zero or positive impact to parking when projects are complete,” Youngblood said. 

Parking Services Manager Katrina Carr echoed the same sentiments as Youngblood and noted  Parking Services evaluates the use of campus parking lots and found there are many that are rarely used. 

 “The campus has abundant parking on the west side of 16th Street that can be used to make up for any lost parking spots during or after construction,” Carr said. “We don’t have an exact number of parking spots that will be impacted since the project details aren’t finalized yet.”  

Locations for additional or temporary parking if needed has not yet been determined. 

Check back in The News for campus parking updates.

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