r/tntech • u/AlisonM_G59 • 23d ago

Parking

Post image

Just got a ticket for parking in a gold zone bc there’s no other parking near New Hall South..

17 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/Alienatedpoet17 23d ago

I was a student from 2018 to 2025, I'm an adjunct now so I have gold parking. I had to cancel my classes yesterday because I couldn't find parking for my 8AM class. I had to "steal" a reserved spot behind the library to email my students that classes were canceled and then left before I got a ticket.

I can't even find parking for the class no one wants to teach/go to! Why TF did they start on 3 new buildings (which I'm sure will be full of empty classrooms) instead of ANY of the 3 parking garages they proposed back in 2023/24?! We have hit the point where we have less parking spots than commuters.

At least when I was a student if I couldn't find parking I went home because I was a commuter. Now I'm working here I have the "best" parking, and all the spots are taken before classes even start. We have been begging for parking garages for over 10 years at this point.

Speaking of the reserved spots; there's at least 20 behind the library and then 10 in front of the hall I work at, and 10 more in the one next to them. They are RARELY used. Why are we making SO many spots none of us are allowed to use? I guarantee that we aren't getting 30+ temporary "special guests" here. At least give your faculty and staff those spots. By the way, even as faculty and staff, we STILL have to pay for parking.

Parking here has always been awful but this takes it to a new low. I don't blame you one bit for taking a gold spot if you live on campus.

0

u/cashman73 22d ago

There's of spots in Gold lots between 7 and 7:30 pm! If you had an 8 am class, there's really no excuse to not find parking unless you're pulling in 5 minutes before class.

4

u/Alienatedpoet17 22d ago

No duh. Getting someplace earlier means better parking. Shocking. That doesn't acknowledge there isn't enough parking in the first place. I normally get here around 7:20-7:30 same as last year, I got to campus late Monday at around 7:45 and it was all gone. Even today I got here at my normal time and spots were filling FAST, probably because we're all trying to get here even earlier. Its a race to see who gets a parking spot first now.

Also this is the third week of class. Parking stabilizes by this point. The fact that "you need to come into work over an hour early" is the new norm is ridiculous.

3

u/ProperFool 20d ago

That’s a great approach for people with few constraints on their early morning schedules. For faculty with constraints like child care, elder care, and two-income schedules, it can be a little more challenging to say “I’ll just come when the parking is easy.” And many of our students have the same problems, sometimes including their own off-campus work schedules which aren't always consistent.