Is there enough parking on campus?

ENC students often complain that there isn’t enough parking on campus. Many of these complaints come from students who are not registered to park in the student parking lot, and thus are forced to find parking spots on side streets or in front of houses.

There is plenty of space in the student parking lot, but some students do not want to pay the registration fee, which is $45.00 per year. Some argue that this fee is too high, citing the fact that Gordon College charges only $10 per semester for their students to obtain parking permits.

Curry College, though, charges students $250 to obtain a parking permit for the year. This makes ENC’s $45 fee look much more reasonable.

Besides the cost, why are students still not making use of the Waterston Parking Lot?

“The side streets are more accessible to most students. The parking lot is much further than the other empty spaces around campus,” sophomore Jordan Grays said.

All students are allowed to park in any legal spaces on the street, but some students block driveways with their vehicles.

“We get complaints when students park right in front of someone’s driveway, [but] besides that we don’t receive complaints,” Security Director John Gelormini said.

A lot of people pay for spots, which comes in handy when there is a snow storm and the streets have to be cleared. The problem is that students aren’t making use of the lot that they are paying for; instead, they choose to park in spaces that are closer to their dorms.

Only sophomores, juniors, and seniors are allowed to park in the Waterston lot, which has 102 parking spaces. Currently, 85 students on campus have bought hangtags and registered as residents. These students are not allowed to park behind Young Hall or in the parking lot behind Cove, which are reserved for resident assistants, tenants, faculty, and staff.

Commuters, who are only on campus for the time of their classes or meetings, can use the Sachem Lot and side streets for parking. Currently, 52 commuters are registered to park in the Sachem lot, which has only 22 parking spaces.

ENC makes a commitment to not sell more parking permits to residential students than spots available in the student parking lot, but there are too many commuters and not enough parking spaces available in Sachem.

“The commuter parking lot always reaches its full capacity and it genuinely upsets me,” commuter and senior Thomas Leahy said. “I drive an hour to get to school and when I pull up to find that there is not a single parking spot, it overwhelms me with stress.”

Associate Dean for Community Life Robert Benjamin, who lives on nearby Sachem Street, said that “there are still just not enough parking spaces.”

The college has previously tried to build a parking lot, but this was difficult because getting permits for that required not only money, but community approval.

All vehicles on campus—regardless of where they are parked—need to be registered with campus security and must have a current ENC parking sticker at all times.