Some students find parking a harrowing process
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A car stands alone in a makeshift parking spot Thursday in the Communications Building parking lot. Plant and Services Operations Director Phil Gatton said that the mixture of snow and ice has caused failure to some equipment and delay in getting all parking lots plowed. Edyta Blaszczyk ~ Daily Egyptian
After university officials closed campus for two days because of poor weather, SIUC greeted students Thursday with limited parking spaces and massive mounds of snow.
Most parking lots on campus were half-plowed, rendering many students unable to find a parking space. Those who found space were in danger of being stuck because of lingering ice and snow that amassed from a winter storm that had struck Carbondale two days earlier.
Phil Gatton, director of Plant and Service Operations, said progress has been slow because snow and ice interfered with some equipment, which meant most of the work had to be done with shovels.
“I’m sure there are a lot of people frustrated and I apologize for that,” Gatton said. “We were given a difficult storm and we’ve tried to deal with it the best we can.”
As of 11:45 a.m., only five rows at the SIU Arena parking lot had been cleared.
Christina Trapani, a sophomore from Herrin studying finance, said she would have been fine with the decision to open campus if the lots had been cleared.
“We had softball practice today and we needed to get to the stadium, and they hadn’t even plowed that parking lot,” Trapani said. “I thought they could have plowed yesterday when we had the day off. I thought that was why we had the day off.”
Chancellor Sam Goldman said the decision to open campus came when he drove around campus with Gatton. Goldman said though conditions were not completely clear, they thought it was clear enough to resume classes.
“We were aware there would be some difficulties,” Goldman said. “All in all, it looked like the campus should be operational. It wasn’t perfect, but it was operational.”
Lot Two, which is located east of Anthony Hall, was completely clear at 8:30 a.m.
Kathleen Plesko, director of Disability Support Services, said she received no complaints and was pleased with the work the Physical Plant had done to clear parking lots, sidewalks and roads.
“Our Physical Plant has really been climbing a mountain day and night trying to make things work,” Plesko said. “To me, at some point you have to go and do the hard thing (and open campus). Of course it’s not going to work for everybody, but I think they’ve done a phenomenal job to this point.”
Reza Habib, a professor in psychology, said he had trouble finding a parking space in a lot west of Lawson Hall.
But Habib said he understands why campus was opened after being closed for two days.
“From a faculty point of view — for people teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays — that’s a whole week they would have lost from a semester,” Habib said. “It puts a lot of strain on students to cover the material.”
Lt. Harold Tucker of the SIUC Police Department said officers were encouraged to help with parking and not write tickets unless necessary Thursday.
“We’re just trying to facilitate students, faculty and staff,” Tucker said. “We’re using extreme caution and not writing tickets, but just trying to facilitate safe parking and travel.”
Though the threat of tickets was lifted, some students found parking to be a frustrating process.
John Folak, a senior from Chicago studying aviation, said his car became stuck when he tried to park at the SIU Arena before a 10 a.m. class.
“They just should have plowed these lots, they had all day yesterday,” Folak said. “If they were going to open the campus, they should have had the lots plowed.”
Folak said he had to call a friend to pull him out
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