By Angel Dominguez
Entering week seven at Dominican, it seems like classes aren’t the only thing driving students in circles. The parking scarcity has been troubling for both students and Dominican officials.
The recent parking restriction on Park Avenue placed by the Village of River Forest has only decreased the number of spots available. Dominican officials have noted the parking troubles and are now working towards solutions.
The campus has approximately 1200 parking spaces for students, faculty, staff, and contractors at Dominican, with the five-level parking garage holding just over 500 spaces.
The department of campus safety provided permit purchase data that states they have sold 1500 permits for the semester.
What do students think about the scarcity of parking?
Many students have spoken out, with several student commuters speaking on the difficulty of finding parking spots, often with the result of being late to class.
Junior Anthony Perez does not remember parking being this inconvenient during his first two years but encountered the inconvenience of parking on the fifth level of the garage.
“It was not [really] bad [during] my freshman year [because] I was able find parking,” Perez said.
Perez added that on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting as early as 8 a.m. he begins to struggle to find parking. Another student, Johana Ramirez, also reiterated the same feeling of parking inconvenience.
Jennifer Cano, a transfer student, shared her disappointment with the parking arrangement at Dominican, stating she never had a problem with parking at her previous school.
Dominican officials said that they have received feedback from many students.
Looking towards the future, Mark Titzer, vice president of finance and administration, said they are finding ways to improve the functionality and spaces on campus.
Pointing out that the influx of many students has likely maximized how many students the campus can serve, Titzer said he thinks it is a healthy challenge that the university has an increase of students every year.
Sasha Santiago, director of campus safety, backed the university in finding solutions such as looking into data offered by the parking garage toll and the permit selling software to help understand some of the peak times on campus.
They also mentioned they are both working with the registrar’s office and reviewing class schedules during those hours to fix the parking situations on campus.
Adding that placing a limit or restriction on how many, and who, can purchase permits is something they’ve steered away from, to ensure everyone on campus the ability to purchase a permit.
Reiterating the increase of students on campus this semester, having a challenge with parking was also a topic of discussion back in the 2015-16 school year. With both mentioning that Dominican is in its post-covid era in terms of student enrollment.
On Sep 24, campus safety sent a university-wide email regarding recent parking restrictions placed on Park Avenue, and for students to be wary of changes to avoid being ticketed.
Titzer and Santiago stated that the parking restrictions placed on Park Avenue would impact valuable parking space for students, losing about twenty to thirty spots along that street.
The parking restrictions were placed at the end of September by the Village of River Forest, after a petition was started by neighbors pushing for the street to be restricted to River Forest resident only, between 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
When reached for comment from neighbors, one reiterated that a major concern behind the petition was they felt that children biking to and from school were being pushed onto oncoming traffic.
Dominican officials are moving forward with a review of parking utilization on campus as they work towards solutions amid student feedback on parking inconvenience this semester.
