“Parking demand varies greatly by day of week and time of day. In order to maximize the parking spaces on campus, commuter parking is 1.85 permits to 1 space. Non-Commuter parking is 1.20 permits to 1 space. Faculty/Staff parking is 1.20 permits to 1 space.”

This is a direct quote from https://parking.utk.edu/permits/ detailing the ratio of parking passes sold to the amount of available parking spaces on campus. Considering the nearly 30,000 students who live on campus, there could never possibly be enough spots for a 1:1 ratio between passes and parking spaces. However, it will take years to build even a single parking lot for commuters, non-commuters, or staff.

Each freshman class is exponentially larger than the last, and with the university now giving on-campus housing preferences to freshmen over upperclassmen, the surrounding Knoxville area on the university side of the river has seen an overinflation in all forms of the housing market. Students are camping outside of apartment buildings to even have a chance at getting a lease for the coming year, while students who live in the greater fort area are grasping for any house they can find as RentUTK holds a monopoly over the entire neighborhood.

Upperclassmen, mostly unable to live in dorms because of the freshman priority in addition to the ever-growing class size, must find housing across the river or in an area outside of Knoxville, and must drive miles to campus for their classes. While there is nothing inherently problematic about students living off-campus in their upperclassmen years, the issue lies in parking. When a commuter student drives to campus from afar, they must find a parking spot so they can park and go to their classes on time. When there are increasingly less spots available with an increasingly unbalanced ratio of parking passes to available spots, it seems as though the problem will cause countless students to be displaced in the future, especially if they are unable to attend classes because of this issue. 

Most universities do not allow freshmen to bring their vehicles onto campus.

The housing issues and parking crisis go hand in hand. Here’s how:

• Greater admission of freshman classes each year means more freshman who are given priority to live in dorms on campus.
• More upperclassmen are displaced and must find housing off-campus if they do not win the lottery to be in a dorm hall.
• The houses and apartment complexes in the immediate area will be full of students long before all of them are able to find suitable housing.
• Students who are able to find housing outside of a theoretical walking distance of campus must drive to their classes.
• There are fewer and fewer parking spots to accommodate these driving students.
• Some students are unable to attend classes on time or entirely

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville prioritizes numbers above all, and this priority is unshakeable. Considering the lengthy process of constructing any new dorms or even parking lots, there is only one immediate solution that can help ease the pressure and congestion facing the housing market in Knoxville, as well as the issues that involve parking on campus:

• Not allowing freshmen to bring cars to campus
  • If UTK will prioritize putting freshmen in dorms, then not allowing them to bring cars shouldn’t be an issue
  • Knoxville is a very “walkable” city as well, meaning that even without cars, those who live on campus can still easily access the city via walking, shuttle, bike, or scooter.
  • Those who cannot find a spot easily must often park illegaly, leading to tickets and towing, which are expensive

• Reconsolidating which spots belong to which kinds of passes
  • More commuter
  • More staff
• Some professors struggle to get to their first classes on time because of lack of staff parking spots.
  • Less noncommuter 

If these simple steps are taken, it would:

• Ease the pressure on the housing market
  • Houses in the fort/apartments near Cumberland are currently overinflated and overcrowded
  • If people no longer fear not finding parking on campus, they will not feel pressured to live right next to campus, allowing a more even distribution of students across the greater Knoxville area
• Create a more effective learning institution
  • Staff will always be able to get to their class on time
  • Students will get to class on time
  • Freshmen (encouraged to live in dorms at this point) can become inherently more familiar with Knoxville and campus, encouraging them to move out by making them more receptive to living somewhere outside of the university grounds

In essence, there is no way to perfectly solve this issue in one fell swoop. However, considering the fact that many students must stay in a Holiday Inn hotel because of overadmission, having this reconsolidation of parking resources can act as a “band-aid” while the administration and executives who are in charge of decision-making dedicate time and money to building more appropriate infrastructure. This is a decision that can be made quickly and soon, and with your help, we can be a part of the solution to this growing issue.