Have you ever had to walk a mile to your car after a long day of classes when it’s negative 20 degrees outside? When your cheeks, hands and feet freeze to a purple shade and it hurts when you try to move them?

Having to pay for parking way out in Wallace or Towers is unfair for college students; students bring cars because they desire convenience. The University’s parking division has made it even more difficult for students to park their vehicles than ever before.

Additional on-campus parking spots for students at Iowa State would increase convenience and save time, and should be a priority project for the University.

A lot of students and staff at Iowa State may argue that there’s not enough room to create additional parking spots, or it costs too much to create more space and build more parking lots, or that it ruins the beauty of campus, but, most of the time, these arguments appear to be excuses.

According to the Center of Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State, the university is using their budget for numerous projects and new buildings. Why can’t they take some time and money to make a plan for creating extra parking spots on campus? Perhaps build more two–and three-level parking lots, like the one at the Memorial Union or the community lot by Gerdin? According to the diagrams of the bus routes online for CyRide, these locations are a lot closer to dorms, and buses run fairly often along those routes.

Students spend a lot of money to house their cars and keep them on campus and it should be as convenient as possible for them to access their vehicles. If students have to pay so much money every year to park their cars, they deserve a spot near their dorms. Friley, Eaton, Martin and Helser residents used to be able to park in lot 59, which is right next to Eaton and Martin residence halls. But now, the area is under construction. Therefore, all of the students have had to move their cars to lot 61 A/B, the huge parking lot next to Wallace hall.

Some people might argue that students can take the CyRide to get to their cars. But, really, the whole point of having a car is to not have to wait in the cold at the bus stop and having to squish into the bus while a million other students are trying to get on. The point of having a car is to increase convenience for students on campus, and the point of purchasing parking permits is to not only have a place to store our cars, but, also, to get to our cars as soon as we can when we need or want to.

Students frequently talk about how painful it is to walk several blocks to their cars in the cold, the snow, the wind-chill and the elements.

Even in the spring and summer, the heat will prove to be a problem as well. The university needs to spend more resources and focus on this pressing issue, as it is clearly a hot topic for many students. Iowa State should show its appreciation to its students and plan more parking for incoming students and generations to come.

The university should look at planning future parking lots in certain locations, especially around the Memorial Union and Gerdin. These locations would help open up more spaces in the lots around the main campus and help students all across campus access better parking locations.

It is a priority to increase on-campus parking spots for students, because it will  be much easier for the students to get around places; it will reduce stress and it would  be one less thing to worry about in college. The university should look at locations around the Memorial Union and Gerdin as soon as possible so that incoming students will never have to deal with the current hassles that exist for students that struggle with distant parking locations.

Shoai Chen is a sophomore in accounting.