DISCLAIMER: This article is the opinion of the author and is not intended to reflect the opinions of Lumination Network.
As classes begin ramping up once again, now is a great time to continue the conversation about how ludicrous the parking situation at Lipscomb University is.
It really baffles me that Lipscomb, a flourishing school in the Southeast, cannot seem to accommodate its growing student body with an equal number of parking spaces.
Instead, it seems like more spots continue to be taken away. I have a couple of examples.
Right before the 2017 fall semester began, Patrick Cameron’s parking email at the time stated that the parking garage with the tennis court on top would “now be for Faculty, Staff and Guest use only.”
To this day, that has not changed.
Okay, so if you get paid to go to Lipscomb, you can park in the garage. That’s great.
I’m not sure if they had previously closed off the garage in that manner before, but the point is that I wasn’t going to be able to park there.
And then, towards the end of the 2018 spring semester, the Ezell parking lot next to the garage got the axe in favor of the upcoming George Shinn Event Center. If you’re a freshman or a transfer this year, yes, that building they’re working on used to be a parking lot.
Again, all this blows my mind.
You do have Stokes, which is honestly not that bad. It’s right next to the campus and is a short walk, especially if your first class is in McFarland or Hughes or one of those buildings on the northwest side of campus.
I think the worst thing about Stokes is the fact that it’s unpaved and full of giant craters that look like they’re ready to swallow your whole car if you drive over them.
Stokes also fills up and runs out of spaces as the day goes by. I had this happen to me very recently, but I got lucky and made one more swing by the baseball diamond to see someone getting in their car to leave.
It’s demoralizing to drive to campus, where there’s a parking garage that you can’t use and a parking lot that’s been torn down in favor of an event space, and be demoted to a gravel lot off campus because all the spots that do exist are full.
I’ve been determined enough not to park at Stokes to the point that last semester, I would sacrifice a little extra sleep and get to campus early just so that I could get a spot by the soccer field.
To really demonstrate how much of a parking martyr I am, when Lipscomb began offering students three free weekly meals in exchange for the Woodmont Hills shuttle usage, I decided to stick with my guns and park on campus. Sure, I could save money on food. Or I could get a nice parking spot and enjoy a short walk to my first class.
There isn’t all bad news. Lumination reported last semester that an incoming 300-spot garage is about to be in the works. That should help clear up some of the issues with parking in the future.
That’s assuming they don’t tear up another big parking lot for yet another building in the meantime.
That’s assuming they don’t reserve this new 300-spot garage for “faculty, staff and guest” usage only.
In the meantime, the constant parking jokes and complaints will continue to pile up, as students complain about the self-inflicted wound that has resulted in a lack of adequate parking at Lipscomb.