To Whom It May Concern:

It’s me again, your not so favorite student at UNH. For the second time this year I am noting my complaints about the parking problems that your students, the ones paying $52,000 a year to attend this university, face on a daily basis. Because obviously my first attempt at bringing some recognition to the issue was to no avail.

I’m positive it is of no surprise to you to learn that parking is a major issue on our campus. How am I so confident of this, you might ask? Well, for one, the UNH website states that commuters WILL have trouble finding parking. It doesn’t give any advice on how to resolve this issue; it just forewarns commuters of the hellish parking lot that is patiently awaiting their arrival. And for two, this is not just my opinion, but also the opinion Aof the majority, so I’m sure there have been complaints about it in the past.

When I have asked for suggestions on how to deal with the parking problem, I’ve received a few options, so let me go over those in detail with you.

I’ve been told to get to campus earlier than your scheduled class time, so you have time to park. Well, I have tried this and it is a completely inept solution. I started trying to get to class 20 minutes early and after driving in circle after circle, I was forced to miss class and make the hour-long commute home, because I could not get parking. Next, after being extremely irritated, I left my house an hour early, determined not to miss another class. I arrived at campus with a FULL hour to kill trying to find parking and to my horrid shock, I learned that I wasted my time yet again.

You see, the commuters at UNH are smart. Once they do find a parking spot, they never leave! So you could spend ten minutes, 20 minutes, even an hour circling the same few parking spots but I can promise you a spot will not open up. You will leave campus, after missing yet another class, upset and frustrated.

I’ve also been told that I might find success if I attempted to park off campus. This suggestion was actually comical to me. Not only do the city residents usually occupy these few parking spots on the streets of West Haven, but the ones that are open are open for good reason. Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but the ugly truth is that the areas off campus are not the safest places in the world.

When I have a night class, I have absolutely no desire to be walking the streets of West Haven all alone because the only available parking was a mile down Campbell Ave. and I don’t think any other students want to be doing that either. BUT, if you don’t want to take my word for it, I would recommend talking to the UNH student who was robbed at gunpoint last August, while walking to his car on Campbell Ave.—his opinion might be held in a higher regard than mine.

So, since both of these suggestions are clearly inadequate, I am asking for a third option, one that will actually present a reliable solution to this parking problem. We apparently have all the funds to be building new residence halls and to be adding colleges to our campus, but do we not have enough to create a larger commuter parking lot?

If that is the case that we don’t have the space or the means, then maybe the university should consider banning residents from having vehicles on campus, since they surely can make it to class without having to drive and occupy a parking space.

Whatever it takes, there needs to be a resolution to this issue. As a paying student at UNH, it is ridiculous that I still have to miss classes that I am fully prepared to go to because there are no parking spaces available.

Sincerely,
An Outraged Commuter