While students become more disenchanted about the availability of parking on campus, Parking Services is confident there is plenty of adequate campus parking to meet student demand, and that commuters may have to adjust their daily routines to find it.
“I really believe we have all kinds of parking,” said Alan Stormann, assistant director for Security, Parking and Transportation at the University of Maine. “Now let me define that by saying probably what I run short of is convenient parking.”
Parking concerns ranked high with students last year, however, this was due partially to the fact that nearly 160 parking spaces were unavailable because of campus construction. With these spots back in commission, as well as 150 new commuter spots added to the Hilltop lot, commuter students are having a hard time giving up the parking hunt in the Collins Center for the Arts and Belgrade lots, the largest and most central commuter lots on campus.
“Those lots could be full at 10 o’clock, but there’s other lots around them that aren’t,” Stormann said. “I’ll say 80 percent of the time, I have over 100 available parking spaces during any given day.”
At UMaine any student, commuter or resident, is allowed to buy a campus parking permit. As of now, there is no cap on how many parking permits are issued for an academic year. This year parking services issued 3,978 commuter permits and 1,491 residential permits as of Sept. 30.
Currently, there are 2,318 commuter parking spots spanning 13 designated areas across campus, as well as 1,608 spots reserved for residential students and 1,812 reserved for faculty and staff.
While students might not find commuter sections of the Hilltop or Steam Plant lots as convenient as the CCA or Belgrade lots, Stormann argues they are all relatively an equal distance from main points of campus.
“If you take the library and you look at the Collins Center lot, and you take the library and you look at the Steam Plant lot, the Steam Plant is actually closer to the library than the end of the Collins Center,” Stormann said.
Julie Clifford, a fourth-year commuter student, shares the same morning routine that many UMaine students do. At 9:40 a.m. Monday through Friday, Clifford drives onto campus and starts the hunt for an available parking spot in the CCA lot.
“I drive around the CCA for 20 minutes,” Clifford said. “My thought is that people will be leaving class, so it’s likely that I’ll be able to find a spot. The other lots are far away from my classes and sometimes I just don’t have the time.”
This creature-of-habit behavior is what Stormann urges students not to do.
“When you get here and the sign tells you that the lot is full and where there is alternate parking, go to the alternate parking. Don’t hunt, don’t drive around the lot looking for a parking spot, hoping somebody is going to back out,” Stormann said.
Despite a growing increase in the size of freshmen classes, Parking Services doesn’t believe it is necessary to rethink the University’s policy that allows students to bring their cars to campus freshman year — a relatively uncommon trait among public universities.
Stormann said that parking is “reevaluated annually” and if he needed to change any residential parking areas to commuter areas he could, but “all of the information that I’ve gathered thus far is that we’re not even close as to what we can park on this campus.”
Still, if students are unable to find parking, Parking Services suggests that students call 207-581-INFO or 207-581-4636, and an automated message will specify what lots have availability at that given time.
“We strongly encourage people to call the parking office and find out where there is parking. As soon as you’re on campus and the CCA and Belgrade are full, call [207-581-INFO] and we’ll tell you the closest place that you could possibly park,” said Marcella Cheviot, a Student Parking Enforcement Officer.
Even if there is no available commuter parking, Cheviot said that if students reach out to Parking Services, they would be able to park in residential lots if necessary.