UTC Faculty Senate,

It is no secret that the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s population is increasing at an impressive rate. As a result, the school is struggling to accommodate for the constantly growing amount of students and faculty. One aspect that is in desperate need of revamping is the parking situation. With the current student population of over 11,000 students and hundreds of staff members, it would be impossible to provide a parking space for everyone on this campus, but it is definitely something that needs to be considered a pressing issue. 

Parking on the UTC campus is something that students and faculty members complain about on a daily basis. Complaints can range from things like, “The parking passes are too expensive” to “I have a parking pass, but I can never find a place to park” to “I have to park a mile away from campus, and I don’t feel safe walking to and from my car.” There are fifty-four parking lots on the UTC campus. The number of spots in each lot ranges between ten to a couple hundred spots. However, that isn’t nearly enough to provide easily accessible parking for the mass amount of people that drive to or permanently park on campus. 

There is no reason for people to feel unsafe simply because they are forced to walk long distance to their car. There are both girls and boys who have had to call the University Police Force to walk/drive them to or from their car due to the fact that they had to park off campus because of the lack of parking. There are students who have had to get extra jobs to pay for the over-priced parking passes regardless of not having a promise of a guaranteed spot. There have been academic advisors and other faculty members who have complained that they still have to buy a parking pass, and they even have trouble finding a open space. There are no excuses for the amount of stress that this issue has caused on the UTC campus. There are definitely things that can be done to fix it.

Something needs to be done. There are so many students that back the idea that UTC needs more parking, and as a committee with a voice, you -the Faculty Senate- should be our voice. Your job is to "provide advice and recommendations to university administrations," so use your influence with the higher ups of UTC to convince them to take care of something that is a persistent problem for the UTC student body and faculty. 

Sincerely, 

UTC Students and Faculty