By J.D. EDDY, Editorial Editor
Northwestern has ample parking space
Northwestern is a small campus with an undergraduate population of 1,642, but our parking situation does not reflect that.
The university website doesn’t say how much parking is available on campus, but there never seems to be a shortage of places to park.
I live in Ament Hall, which is on the west side of the campus. Most of the students who live there are athletes.
The dorm has three parking lots that for the total occupancy of Ament, which is 184.
Other campuses around Oklahoma do not have as much parking availability. At places like OU and UCO, students are not within walking distance of everything campus-related.
OU has an enrollment of 31,255 students, according to the university website. The university has seven residence halls on campus. Oklahoma’s campus is 4.7 square miles.
Northwestern is only one square mile, enabling the school to have all of the dormitories within a five-minute walk of every building on campus.
Northwestern students are fortunate because they have plenty of parking and short walks to classes.
Finding information about parking at other colleges is difficult, but students complain about it frequently on Reddit.
It is safe to say that a large university would not want to talk about any issues it has. But students on Reddit hold nothing back.
Some of the things said aren’t meant for a school paper, but assume it is something along the lines of “This sucks,” with a few extra expletives.
These are some of the reasons I think Northwestern has the parking situation under control.
Around campus, a few places like Vinson Hall have parking lots on either side.
Parking lots are connected to the Wellness Center, but the only downside is that, during the day from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., students who do not have a commuter parking permit aren’t allowed to park there.
This is one of the things I wish the university would change regarding student parking. But to make up for this detriment, the school has parking by the tennis courts directly behind the Welly.
Students who live on campus can park behind the Wellness Center and have a shorter walk to their classes. It’s minimal, but the walk is shorter.
My dad told me that, when he went to school here, there was more than enough parking for students. He graduated from Northwestern in 1978. Around that time, even with the oil embargo, there was always somewhere for students and others to park.
Northwestern has more than enough parking to accommodate all of its students, which hopefully means students have less to complain about.
Over the past few weeks, I have written about things the school could be doing better. But parking is one area where Northwestern is already doing well.
While some issues on campus could use improvement, parking is not one of them.
