The age-old morning struggle of student life has only become worse.
Parking at Citrus College, a popular complaint of all students, has caused some students to abandon morning classes all together.
Some students have been kicked out of classes and have even considered dropping classes held at times when Citrus is most populated with student drivers.
Oscar Garcia who drives to school from West Covina describes the morning rush to find parking as “craziness.”
“My Spanish teacher dropped me from the class the first day and I had to go talk to her,” said Garcia. “She added me back on but she was pretty strict about it.”
Garcia said he had to reschedule some of his classes so that he wouldn’t have to face the mass of students in the morning which is a solution many others have considered.
“The a.m. classes parking is so bad,” said accounting and business major, Lisa Vega. “I’m always late for class so I’d rather just take night classes.”
Vega drives from Whittier and said it takes her 30 to 40 minutes to get here and another 30 minutes to find parking, forcing her to have to leave her home well before her class even begins.
Aside from rescheduling classes or leaving early, students have also opted to take advantage of the free bus passes being offered for free by foothill transit. “I had to start taking the bus after a while just to avoid traffic,” said Garcia.
Garcia also suggested expanding the parking lot.
The Educational and Facilities Master Plan states there are only 3,700 available parking spaces to students on campus.
Over 6,500 student parking passes have been issued according to Campus Safety Supervisor Ben Macias but not all of those passes are being used at one time.
The most crowded times for student parking lots are from 9:30 am to 2 p.m., Macias said..
“Unfortunately, at times, some students become frustrated because they cannot find parking right outside of the building where their class is being held,” Macias said via email.
The target ratio for parking spaces by the Educational and Facilities Master Plan for community colleges is one space for every five students which as of 2020, citrus will still be under with one space for every 4.8 students.
If that number continues to grow throughout the years, Citrus College will have to find a new alternative to fix the parking problem.
“Many are not aware of the available parking in the S6 parking lot or at the off campus parking lot (Citrus Annex 1) that we lease from Azusa Pacific University (APU),” said Macias. “At either of these locations there are typically parking stalls available, however, it requires a small walk to the interior of campus.”
The S6 parking lot (Citrus Annex 1) is located on the south of Citrus next to the Stadium field and Baseball Field 2.
The class pass being offered to students has helped to aide the parking problem which allows more students free access to Foothill Transit buses instead of having to drive.
