Ricardo Barge
February 26, 2014
Where to park?
Texas State
University announced that it marks its 16th consecutive year that student
enrollment has increased from the previous year.
Texas State University has a record-setting enrollment of
35,568 students for the 2013 fall semester, this is an increase from 34,225 students that attended
the 2012 fall semester. Ashley Jeffries, a music major at Texas State University,
says this is in part due “especially since we have the biggest
freshman class this year." With the increase of students the impact that
it has is both positive and negative. Prestige for the university increases
with the enrollment increase, but what about the space available for those
students to park?
Parking at Texas State University
has always been a problem according to 25-year-old music major, Mitch
Quintanilla.
“I started in 2006 and
left for a few years. Parking has always sucked,” he said.
With
parking being a problem over the years on campus, the overall growth of the
university will increase that problem. Unless the proper plans are in place to accommodate
with the growth. Transfer student form San Antonio Shanna Bradford who has only
been here one semester even understands that.
“If it continues to
grow at that rate there definitely need to be expansion plans already in place
so there's not that congestion problem with traffic," she said.
With
the planning for more parking comes construction of parking garages. San Marcos
already has construction happening all over town due to population increase,
which increases traffic all around town. Texas State University student Sydney
Afflitto lives with the traffic every day, but believes parking garages still need
to be built.
“I mean it's a pain,
especially with driving and stuff, but I think that parking is definitely an
issue. In order to create more parking, there has to be construction,” she
said.
With the increase of
enrollment there is also an effect to the parking at local establishments
outside of campus. Senior at Texas State University Kelsey Kotzur notices the
parking shortage around town.
“Now the streets are
packed all the time, a ridiculous amount of traffic. I can’t ever find a
parking spot at HEB,” she said.
With the growth of
student population the city of San Marcos will need to adapt as will the
university itself.
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