Parking on campus is an ongoing topic of discussion for students and faculty at Whitworth. Campus facilities admittedly report that the removal of the Baldwin-Jenkins (BJ) parking lot further adds to the inconvenience of parking on campus. Caleb Coffey, an off-campus student, reports that he has “…had difficulty finding parking even at 8 a.m.” The reduction of the BJ parking lot has impacted students across campus, regardless of where they would typically park. Chris Eichorst, facilities services director, stated that the number of parking spaces exceeds county requirements by a wide margin, and all the removed parking spaces have been replaced.  

At ASWU’s meeting on Wednesday, three representatives spoke on the issue and shared what parking on campus looks like for students. According to the representatives, convenient parking is not something faculty prioritizes over other concerns, such as preserving the green natural environment of the campus.  

“Students pay for parking, not for convenient parking,” said Eichorst to the ASWU representatives in attendance. The hope is that students will park in the outer skirt, underutilized parking lots and walk to class. Pictures of underutilized parking spaces, presented in the meeting, showed copious amounts of empty parking spaces at peak hours of the day.  

“Students need to understand the secret to parking,” says Eichorst. Parking in a less crowded parking lot and walking to class will save much more time than driving around looking for a convenient, closer place to park. “Parking lots like X4, H2, H3 and A1 are all underutilized parking spaces just walking distance from the heart of campus.”  

Upper-class science majors, who previously used the BJ parking lot for their classes in Robinson Science Hall, express their discontent with the parking situation on campus, although some students understand the dilemma.  

Isaac Pommer, a student at Whitworth, said, “[Parking is] a very complex problem; it really can’t be solved in the snap of a finger, but there’s definitely some steps that they can take.”  

At the moment, Student Services is taking action to inform and urge students to use the underutilized parking lots on campus. Previous solutions, like designated parking spaces, were shown to be ineffective in solving the problem.   

Many of the female interviewees raised concerns about safety when walking to their cars in the dark and felt that forcing students to park on the outskirts of campus would make an incident more likely. ASWU representative Gwen Brantner brought up the concern in the ASWU meeting, to which campus security director Leroy McCall informed students that security has measures in place to combat this.  

Safe rides are provided by campus security, and arrangements to avoid traveling alone in the dark and speaking up are all encouraged as methods of staying safe. “Security is a collective responsibility, and each of us plays a part in securing our community,” says McCall. McCall also reminds students, “If you see something, say something.” Nearly all the parking spaces on the Whitworth campus are well-lit and are constantly patrolled by Whitworth security.  

Chris Eichorst hopes for residents to utilize the parking spaces on the outskirts of campus because they are not driving as much. Off-campus students are expected to use the “no-overnight” parking lots and are discouraged from leaving their cars overnight, which causes problems for students in early classes. While the idea for students to travel via other forms of transportation was not specifically discussed, some students report they have resorted to such.