Moorpark College is a great school, but there is one problem that affects nearly everyone: parking. The lack of parking has some students circling the campus looking for a spot, risking being late for class.
Senior administrative assistant Elizabeth Salas stated that there are around 4,200 parking spaces on campus. This doesn’t seem like enough for a school with over 13,000 enrolled students.
Surely most students here at Moorpark do not want to come to school an hour before their first class begins, just to avoid spending a half hour circling the parking lot to find a spot. Lucia Garcia, 23, Nursing Major echos these feelings.
“It gets most busy around 9:50 a.m. and 1 p.m.,” said Lucia. “I have class at 8 a.m. in the morning, so it’s not an issue, but before I would get here an hour before.”
It seems that a large number of students have class from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., causing a mass of people to flood the parking lot all at once. If students took earlier classes or night classes, it would help spread out the number of students in the parking lot over the course of the day.
“During my first semester, it took a couple days to get used to,” said Daniel Kerr, 18, psychology major. “I was trying to figure out when’s the optimal time to get to class so I could get a spot.”
Some students only have class on only Monday and Wednesday, Tuesday and Thursday, or on the weekend. If the parking is more scarce on some days, students may want to take their classes on those off days.
“I have class at 11:30, so I’m here an hour or hour and a half early because there’s never parking at that time.” said Daniel. “They could create more parking, but where would they put it because of the limited space?”
Dustin Simon, 20, undeclared disagrees and thinks Moorpark has plenty of parking.
“It’s pretty packed the first two weeks,” said Dustin. “The parking is normal now.”
When students start dropping classes throughout the semester, it creates more parking for the rest of the student body.
Reed Galloway, 19, Music Major describes his difficulties with parking.
“My first semester here showed me that I have to get here earlier if I want to get a spot,” said Reed. “It didn’t matter if my class started at 8:30 or 10, I had to get to school early.”
A possible solution for the lack of parking could be to carpool with friends who have similar class times. As for next semester, instead of having the same 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. classes Monday through Thursday, consider taking night classes. If taking classes four days a week doesn’t fit your schedule, maybe only take classes two days a week to ease the burden of parking.
