To the Editor:

Making the Hogan Road parking lot into a commuter overflow lot seemed like a good idea, but is it compromising the safety of commuter students?
As a commuter, I often arrive on campus in the afternoon and stay through the evening. As any commuter can tell you, there are no parking spots available in the North Lot if you arrive on campus between noon and 2 p.m. on an average day. So, to avoid the hassle of finding a person who is leaving and following him to his car, I simply head on over to Hogan. This doesn’t seem to be foolproof, however, because even this lot can fill up.
The University has tried to make this lot as convenient as possible to students, offering a shuttle bus and placing a security guard at the entrance to the lot. The problem arises when a student is ready to leave campus after dark.
Recently I was on my way home around 9 p.m. one evening. I passed up the shuttle bus, as usual, and started on the trek down Dorm Road towards Hogan. As I was rounding Mountainview, I realized that I hadn’t passed another person since walking by the complex.
No big security issue, I thought to myself, because there was a guard posted at the entrance to Hogan. But as I approached the parking lot I noticed that there was no guard stationed there. Of the ten lights in the area that should have been illuminating the third tier, only three of them were on, leaving most of the lot in darkness.
The unreliability of the shuttle buses, lack of a guard at the lot into the evening hours, inadequate lighting, and lack of code blue posts in the Hogan Road Lot, as well as the thick woods surrounding the lot, make me question the safety of this parking lot.
The University should install code blue posts, fix the lights and ensure that a guard is stationed at the lot until the end of classes or until the library closes. These simple steps would help protect the safety of commuter students, and should be taken immediately.
Kristin Horner
Health/Sciences student