Another semester is underway at Fresno City College and students find themselves faced with the same problems when it comes to finding a parking spot.
They can’t.
Every year, The Rampage runs articles discussing the constant problems that parking causes at the beginning of each semester. Students hate the idea of arriving at school 1-2 hours before their first class just to find a spot. The administration probably wishes that they had a magic potion to make all the complaints of parking a thing of the past.
While scouring the parking lots of FCC for a place to park my car, I’ve had plenty of time to think of ways to solve this issue that never seems to have an answer. I think I might have found some solutions—and a couple might even solve the wait list problem as well.
My first idea will be to form some sort of business relationship with Fresno Area Express. I know that the administration has talked about looking into some sort of partnership in the past or might even have one up and running today, but my idea will take it to the next level.
The number 1 argument against building more parking for FCC is that there is no room. That’s true. With a campus that is surrounded by neighborhoods, it is definitely difficult to find unused land to build more parking lots on.
My solution: Talk to FAX about establishing a shuttle hub at Manchester Center. If the college can work with FAX to dedicate 2-3 busses that solely go back and forth from Manchester to the FCC campus that would decrease the amount of students waiting for the main bus lines through the city and provide a direct shot to FCC without all the stops in between.
To regulate this, the student would need to have a valid college ID for that semester. The IDs would be regulated just like the parking passes; they would have to be a different color for each semester. For those that come from south of Fresno to go to FCC, maybe the college can also have a hub in downtown Fresno next to the county courthouse. Students there would be able to use the parking garages that are nearby and shuttle from there to FCC.
If this could not be worked out, then maybe the college should take another approach with FAX and provide students who take the bus to school a 5 percent discount on either the total cost of admission for the semester or their total cost of books at the bookstore. If the college was able to do something like this, it could not only free up some parking spots on campus, but it would also encourage students to think twice before buying textbooks off campus. I think an incentive like a 5 percent discount would have me considering checking the bookstore here first before off campus. My second idea would be to offer more courses online. Even for classes that offer labs. If more students took classes online, that would also free up parking spots. Even if they had to come in for lab, the students would be here less frequently on campus. In order to determine who would be eligible for this incentive, the administration can do something like establishing a minimum GPA that a student would need in order to register for their classes being solely online. Not all classes will be able to be offered online, but I think there are more that can that are currently not.
My final idea would be for the administration to take a more aggressive approach in promoting car pooling to campus. Today, more people are taking a conscientious effort in helping the environment, so why not award them in the process? To sign up for this incentive, students would go and purchase a parking pass just like normal. The pass they would receive would be a different color than the regular passes and would have a special identifying marker. To regulate this, the administration could do something like cordon off sections of parking lots solely for the carpoolers. The campus police would check the cars just like every other car for the passes and if cars in the car pool section don’t have their pass properly shown, they will get a ticket.
I recognize that my ideas might be a little far-fetched and some might sound like they’re decades before their time. All that was intended in writing this article was to think of some solutions to the problem. Hopefully, the decision makers will take a look at this article and pick something up from it and try to find a solution soon rather than later.
