If you've ever had a car in Auburn, you probably have a few complaints you want heard.
New tiger transit routes, parking garages and game day parking for both students and visiting tailgaters were points of conversation between students and the University transit services department administrators at the fourth "HeAUrd That!" campus discussion Tuesday, Oct. 29.
The influx of visiting game day tailgaters on Auburn's campus dominated the discussion, and while the number of RVs parked outside buildings may have decreased, Gregory Parsons, university architect, said the problem is far from over.
"It's totally out of hand," Parsons said. "The evolution of trying to get those to move out and take the campus back to where it could function as a campus, you had to find some places to move, and unfortunately some of those ended up in probably not the locations that any of us would choose."
Parsons said Auburn Athletics and Gameday Committee is in charge of game day parking, but no one can build something on Auburn's campus without obstructing something else.
"One of our biggest issues in student government is to get actual feedback from students," said Rob Garcia, assistant vice president of auxiliary services with the Student Government Association. "Students don't know how to reach out to SGA or the administration, but there's a section on our website under 'HeAUrd That' where they can post comments."
Solutions to problems facing the 5 p.m. on-campus parking policy include building additional parking complexes around Auburn, releasing faculty members from work before 5 p.m. or pushing 5 p.m. classes back to 5:30 p.m. to allow students time to park and walk, Parsons said.
Garcia said the PC parking system created in 2011 already implements aspects of that solution, staggering certain parking passes at different times throughout the day, though the good it does to students was poorly communicated by the SGA and the administration.
"Transit times on Donahue have decreased, we have less complaints from faculty that students are late to class and blame parking and the biggest thing is there have been significantly less parking tickets," Garcia said. "Now our parking system is much clearer, you know where to go and when."
Parsons said new parking decks, with 600-750 parking spots, like the South Quad and South Donahue parking decks, will be erected on the site of the former R. B. Draughon library parking deck, with construction slated for the summer of 2014 and is a top priority.
Despite the construction there's still a lot of issues concerning transit around Auburn, and all who have complaints they'd like heard are advised to email, call or pay a personal visit the University Transit Office, which is open 24/7.
"I think they understand that no one is really comfortable where it is right now," said Dave George, director of Transit Services. "I think they've heard it and understand it."
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