Commuters will get around 200 more parking slots in the Oak Street Lot.

That proposal was brought out by Ryan Baerwalde, SGA President, during Monday night’s SGA meeting, the last of the semester.

The new slots will come at the expense of residents, who will have their parking area in that lot slashed in half.

“I think we’ve all seen how the sixth floor of the Sustella Deck is usually totally empty, and the fifth floor is usually halfway full at the most, so obviously all the residential slots aren’t being used up,” Baerwalde said. “So essentially, the idea was to push back the overnight line in the Oak Street Lot.”

The idea was to give more spots to commuter students, while using the rarely-used parking slots on the top floors of the Sustella Deck – spots that Baerwalde explained “VSU paid so much money for, and we’re still paying for.”

“As far as residential spots, there are 396 spots in the Oak Street Lot,” Baerwalde said. “Sustella Deck has 1,157 spots open, Sustella Lot has 72, and Centennial has 136.”

Baerwalde also explained that 1,390 residential parking decals given out to students this semester, and there was a difference of 452 between the number of commuter parking slots and decals given out.

Reaction from students has not been positive.

“I personally hate walking to Sustella, as most people do,” said Shelby Varchmin, an early education sophomore, who lives on campus. “I feel like it would be unfair for residents. Sometimes there’s not enough space, and sometimes we need more space, and commuters are gone after a certain point, so why can’t we have a little more space?”

Dalton King, a psychology sophomore, who commutes to VSU, said, “I personally think that 200 is a bit too much. I don’t honestly think it’s a big enough deal to warrant cutting that much from the people that live here, but I do think that the residents do need to have a bit of a cutback in their parking spaces because they live here on campus and typically have less use for their car.”

Sam Herrin, a political science sophomore, who lives on campus, said, “I think the commuters have enough because I’ve never seen Oak lot completely full. And I think the residents need to have a closer spot [to park]. I can’t think of another solution for it, but I don’t think cutting spots is the answer.”

NOTES:
This was the last SGA meeting of the semester.
Two amendments were passed, and they both concerned excused absences. A senator will be put up for review if he or she has four excused absences against them at SGA meetings and required events. This amendment was scheduled to be voted on last week, but quorum was not reached during last week’s meeting.
Three senators were elected.