OGDEN, Utah — Weber State University is bustling with students back on campus for the fall semester. But some students are already having trouble getting to class – they said it’s because there’s not enough parking on campus.
Hannah Vanderwerff is a senior student; according to her, it's been harder to find even paid parking spaces.
"I personally have been showing up to Weber State 30 to 45 minutes early every day to try to find parking with no luck,” said Vanderwerff. "I had half of my class be 15 minutes late on Tuesday to our math class, even though they got to campus an hour early.”
“It doesn’t matter if you have a W pass, an A pass, it’s just impossible to find parking now.”
She believes that the construction at the Institute of Religion building is pushing people to park in other places. Before, students with classes there could park there for free.
With construction, however, students are looking for different places to park.
The university shared a statement:
"There isn’t any construction impacting WSU parking lots right now. However, some students prefer to park at the Institute of Religion building, which isn’t university property, but is close to campus."
Another option is for students to park for free at the Dee Events Center and ride the free shuttle around campus. Reagan Astle does that, but she said she's seeing more people park there this year so far, and even the shuttles have been slow.
"The lines are longer, parking spots are more spread out, I guess, you come super early and it’s okay, but then you’re waiting around for classes to start for a while,” she added.
While the university said they are not issuing tickets this week, Vanderwerff said she already received one because her license plate was not visible.
"I haven’t seen any warnings at all, I’ve been seeing tickets all week,” she said. She said she has seen others park where they shouldn’t because there isn’t space anywhere else.
The university said they have just been issuing warnings in the following statement:
“Our goal is to help students focus on their classes, not stress over parking. To make the start of a new semester as smooth as possible, Parking Services issues warnings instead of tickets in W lots — where most new students park — during the first week of school."
Vanderwerff said she hopes that as a commuter school, Weber State prioritizes more parking options, instead of students risking getting tickets to make it to class on time.
"It would be great to have other parking lots," she said. “We have the space for it, and even with the institute parking that we had, it was still hard to find a parking spot."
