Article by Asia Russell, BuzzStaff Writer
Parking sticker from the current year and one from last year. Photo Courtesy of Emma Taft
For St. Ambrose University students returning to campus this fall, students say finding a parking spot has been a challenge for some. With parking permits delayed until late August, the student body was left waiting, checking their emails and competing for the most convenient zones.
“It was survival of the fittest to see who gets which parking zone,” says Javon Bruce, a senior Psychology major.
During the summer session, in a July 27th email, newly hired Director of Public Safety Ryan Leabo said permit sales were expected to open the following week while the university finished implementing and testing features of its new parking system.
In a follow-up August 7th email, Leabo said students were experiencing problems logging into the new system.
Then, on August 10th, Public Safety announced that permits were still delayed and said the next update would be provided by Friday, August 15th, unless an expedited solution was found.
However, students did not receive another update on August 15th, and the next announcement came on August 24th when Public Safety said permits were finally available; however, because of the delays, it was announced in the same email that permits would no longer be available by seniority. Instead would be available to the entire student body at once.
For some students, the first-come, first-served system worked in their favor. Madi Parott, a freshman Human Performance and Fitness major on the pre-OT track, says she frequently checked her email and had her information ready.
She also says that “it should come on a first-come, first-served basis because it encourages responsibility.” However, she disliked that students were multiple weeks into August without a parking form, saying the delay made it harder to find close parking and added time to her commute to off-campus practices.
Lexi Bohms, a junior Sports Management major and transfer student, says she was able to get a permit while she was at the end of a class but believed upperclassmen should have received priority. “Many students were in the middle of class and physically were not able to get Zone 1 parking,” Bohms says.
Hailey King, a junior Accounting and Finance major and transfer student, affirms that was her reality. “I was not a fan of how our parking passes kept getting delayed because it ended up pushing back the actual time to purchase one to a time when I was busy.
“So, when I was actually able to purchase a parking pass, I was only left with Zone 2 and Zone 3 options,” says King. She also noted that the process differed from her previous school, where parking was also based on seniority.
For CJ Starke, a senior Exercise Science major, the delay itself was not a major issue, but she says she preferred last year’s system, when students could purchase parking for either a semester or the full year. Many students plan to graduate in December; Starke said she had to purchase a full-year permit despite only needing it for one semester. Bruce also said he would prefer a return to seniority-based parking in the future, noting that many upperclassmen living in residence halls are closer to Zone 1.
Leabo acknowledges students’ frustrations and has apologized for how the process unfolded. He says the university originally intended to continue giving students priority based on seniority, but problems with the new system and communication made that difficult to do.
Leabo explains the delays were largely caused by the transition to the new parking system and complications with the tenant merger. Public Safety was told they had to wait until the merger was completed before moving forward with anything.
The delay was further complicated when the university lost the ability to send emails to the entire student body for about a week and a half. “It made it very hard to communicate what was going on,” Leabo says. “I wanted to send something out. I just couldn’t.”
As the delays continued, Leabo says students began parking in areas that were not designated spaces. “We just had to get people registered so we knew whose vehicles were whose.”
Officials knew the release would not be perfect and that some seniors would not receive the parking preference they had expected. “Sometimes you have to make decisions that are best for the whole that will negatively impact some people,” Leabo adds.
Looking ahead, some changes are already being made. Leabo says Public Safety is analyzing open spaces in Zone 1, and after conversations with Student Government, the waiting list will consider both a student’s place in line and seniority.
The university is also exploring a possible student account credit for December graduates who purchased a full-year permit, although Leabo says nothing has been confirmed.
For next year, Leabo says the university hopes to return to releasing permits by seniority and to complete the process well before classes begin. So while this year’s process came with unexpected challenges, the experience has given Public Safety a clearer idea of how to navigate the new system and avoid similar issues in the future.
