Two weeks ago, on a Friday, I went food shopping. When I came back I didn’t want to carry my groceries all the way on the shuttle and back to my dorm so I figured I’d park in North Lot and just carry them across the field. It also was good since I was going out on Saturday and could leave campus without waiting for the shuttle. “No, since you have that [Whitney Lot] sticker, you cannot park on campus,” said the Quinnipiac Security guard. When I asked him when this rule changed he said that it hadn’t, and that some security guards just let students park in North Lot, simply because they were misinformed. This was news to me! I was so annoyed that they wouldn’t let me park my car anywhere on campus when I live on campus.

I was informed of another “new” rule that Friday as well – from now on all students would be required to park in their respective lots. I was annoyed once again because this meant that either I had to be back every time I took my car out by 11 or park in Westwoods or the Commuter lot and move the car by 12 p.m. and 8 a.m., respectively. According to the resident parking policy as listed in the MyQ website, it states that this policy is what is going to be followed by the University from now on. So I guess I’ll have to live with it, even if it does take an hour to run a simple errand.

I decided that while what the security guards said was true, it wouldn’t be fair to be mad at all of them without talking to their boss. When I tried to talk to the head of parking, I was referred to John Morgan, the Associate Vice President for Public Relations. In e-mail correspondence Mr. Morgan was able to answer my questions. He said that as of Fall 2007 “Security stopped allowing resident students to park in the North Lot because the University needed additional parking spaces for the many events that take place on campus on the weekends. Students were asked to park in spaces near their residence halls.” When I read the last part I laughed because, the North Lot is the closest to my residence hall, my parking lot is about 15 minutes from my dorm. So I sent Mr. Morgan another e-mail. He said that what he meant was “Everyone is assigned to a lot based on his or her parking permit.”

I feel that it’s unfair that one lot is closed while the other remains open. Mr. Morgan also had an answer for that. He said that “When the town of Hamden approved the University’s proposal to create the Whitney Avenue lot, it stipulated that since the lot is located in a residential neighborhood, the University must lock the parking lot up at 11 p.m. and re-open it at 6:30 a.m. daily. The Westwoods lot is not located in a residential neighborhood so there aren’t similar concerns about noise affecting neighbors.” I really don’t agree with this, because I feel like we the students live here too, and we should have the same rights as the people who live in the town. I believe the University should have thought about it more when they decided to build the lot, with the students in mind, rather than the residents of Hamden.

And so many students will have to conform once again to a curfew, or be faced with the fact that their car won’t be there in the morning. So what’s the solution- pay for towing or conform to the University? It’s up to you, but whatever you do; don’t try to park in Whitney after 11, because “Mother” Quinnipiac says it’s closed!