By: Loryn Schuetzle
Raver Staff

Where are all the parking spots? The School of Mines parking office is trying to develop more spots around campus. Every student, faculty, staff and visitor is required to have one of the parking permits in order to park anywhere on campus. Along with a parking permit, the student or staff member must have his or her vehicle registered with the parking office.

So what is the deal with parking? Residents on campus are haunted with the construction on the two dormitories Connolly and Palmerton. Once construction is finished on Connolly by Christmas break, renovations on Palmerton will begin. This keeps the construction site continuous and parking an issue.

“There are so many more students having to commute this year because of the resident halls renovations,” the School of Mines Student Association President Lukasz Dubaj said, “It creates a parking issue because more kids have to travel to campus every day for class.”

For commuters that are wondering where all the spots for the red parking permits are, the answer is simple: look above at the King Center.

Robert Keller, a member of the Student Association, wants to encourage upperclassman to stop complaining and drive your car to the King Center to look for spots.

“It is nice that I don’t have to pay for parking,” senior Gary Smith said,” but it sucks that I have to walk so far!”  Smith is not the only student from yellow parking that feels this way.

The free yellow parking at the O’Hara stadium is convenient for price but it seems like a marathon to walk to class every morning.

The parking office is continually trying to keep up with parking requests and parking spots available. A secret insider for those of you underclassman living on campus, green permits are still available. The parking office is looking at opening up the extra spots up to younger residents on campus.

“There is not a magic fix [to the parking situation],” said Mitch Miller, Director of Facilities Services. The parking committee meets every month to go over problems on the parking status and it tries to solve issues brought up during the meeting.

As of right now facilities is planning on creating some safety precautions for the parking lots. Possible turning lanes are in the future for exiting the O’Hara stadium. Along with the safety, the parking committee is looking to create particular spots for motorcycles on campus.  If you have any fresh ideas for the parking issue on campus, let your voice be heard.

“We are always looking for students to voice their concerns about parking.” Miller says.

If you have a suggestion for the parking committee to discuss feel free to email Mitch Miller at: mitch.miller@sdsmt.edu. He said that he will be more than appreciative and will voice your concerns at the next meeting.