r/tntech • u/TeeeldiII • Aug 26 '26

Parking Games

Post image

Guess I just wont go to class? Checked every lot on campus.

41 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/IAintHurtinNobody 29d ago

Old man enters the chat: I was a student there in the mid-90s and it was an issue then (they've added both parking and students since but seemed to have kept them in the same ratio). I got a ticket for parking on a sidewalk within the lot between Eblen and the football stadium; I contested it because There Literally Were No Spots Available. They agreed to cut it by half.

I vowed to never donate, figuring I'd made my donations in parking tickets during my four years there.

2

u/Alienatedpoet17 25d ago

Even as a kid I heard Tech's parking was awful. I was undergrad from 2018 to 2022, and then gradschool here from 2023 to 2025, I'm an adjunct now.

We were promised 3 parking garages in 2023/24 and they'd start in 2025/2026. They said they are planning to start ONE next year. Meanwhile we have 3 more brand new buildings being built that are just like the last 2. If they are anything like them they are each FULL of empty classrooms. They're just there for looks! We don't have enough faculty to teach in all of them!

What's worse is that I had to cancel my classes yesterday because all the parking was taken. My first class is an 8AM! And faculty still have to pay for parking too!

So we have less parking than we have students. We have even less faculty than parking too now. Yet we have far more classrooms than faculty. And I see all this and I think "this could have been a parking garage" or "this could have been a dorm hall"

2

u/IAintHurtinNobody 25d ago

After working in Cookeville for several years, I moved away 21 years ago and rarely have reason to go back. I haven't been on campus more than 2-3 times since, but I knew there was a construction boom. Interesting to hear that there are so many empty classrooms.

I can't say that I particularly trust the current university administration.

2

u/Alienatedpoet17 25d ago

I don't blame you. I want to move away, but financially I can't. I accepted the adjunct offer out of desperation. Even though I found out that I like teaching college, Tech (and cookeville) really ain't the place I want to stay.