Parking Crunch Frustrates Commuter Students

By KAITLIN HUESTON

Ramapo students who commute to and from school have become extremely frustrated with lack of spaces exacerbated by increased freshmen parking, leaving students to vie for a spot in the mornings and sometimes being late for class.

This is the first year that Ramapo has allowed freshmen to park on campus, reversing a prior, strictly-enforced regulation. However, the increased cars have caused a controversial space crunch. For students who pay over $15,000 a semester plus $200 for parking, this is definitely a valid issue.

“Sometimes I get here 15-30 minutes early at 5:30 in the morning before clinical, and I still can’t find a spot because of the freshmen’s cars that just sit in the commuter lot,” explained junior nursing major Kasey Kahley. “And then once I drive around in circles for 15 minutes, it takes me 15 more just to walk from the furthest lot across campus to the academic buildings. Sometimes it’s faster to park across the street by the athletic fields, which is ridiculous.”

According to Ramapo College’s Center of Student Involvement: Commuter Affairs page, approximately 3,000 students commute to and from Ramapo College, making commuters one of the largest groups of students on campus and an essential part of Ramapo’s family.

“Commuter Affairs is committed to academically and socially connecting commuter students to the Ramapo College Community by providing services and programs that will identify and meet the needs of our commuter student population.” However, many commuter students feel that they are almost punished for choosing not to live on campus like many of their classmates.

Due to some negative attention in the press in recent years, Ramapo’s application rates have dropped significantly. As a marketing ploy, the 2016-2017 school year was the first time that Ramapo allowed freshmen to have their cars on campus. With the overflow of so many extra cars in the commuter parking lot belonging solely to first-year students, students that do not dorm at school are finding it extremely difficult to find ample parking before class.

Junior commuter Maggie Klein is equally unhappy with the set-up. “Allowing freshmen to have their cars on campus is unnecessary. As a commuter, I’m annoyed because I end up having to park really far away in D lot. It’s especially inconvenient in winter weather to trek to my classes.”

However, some students feel that it’s a smart tactic on Ramapo’s part to use on-campus parking to entice freshmen.

“I think that allowing freshmen to have their cars is a great marketing tool because if I was a freshman I would love to have my car at school,” said junior commuter Chris Bernstein. “It would definitely be a perk that would make me consider going to this school over others, since a lot of other school don’t let freshmen have cars their first year at college. It’s a smart move.”

Naomi Harahap is a freshman at Ramapo and says that while allowing freshmen to have their cars on campus definitely draws potential applicants in initially, she and many of her peers plan to transfer to Rutgers after the school year is over.

“They tell us we can park on campus but it doesn’t make that much of a difference when where we park is so far from our actual dorms. No one wants to walk that far so our cars just sit there,” Harahap said. “That being said, if we didn’t have cars here I doubt a lot of people would want to come to Ramapo. It’s such a small school which is why it’s an advantage that we can leave whenever we want to.”

Senior commuter Giancarlo Sepulveda wholeheartedly disagrees, stating that freshmen being able to come and go as they please is exactly the problem.

“It makes commuters’ lives such a pain. We travel from all over and then spend 20-30 minutes looking for parking and end up being late to class once we get here,” Sepulveda said. “It’s actually a terrible marketing tool, in my opinion. They’re freshmen. They shouldn’t have that freedom. None of the students in other years had that privilege. The point is to have them stay on campus to socialize and get to know one another. This is exactly why Ramapo is a commuter school.”

khueston@ramapo.edu