Joshua Newby
Published: March 8, 2006
Venture onto the PJC Milton campus just minutes before your class starts and well, good luck finding a parking place. By 7:15 each weekday morning, most of the good spaces are occupied.
Students either have to park on the grass near the campus risking a ticket or travel much further to an available parking space. It can take 10 or 15 minutes to find a spot, and another 10 or 15 minutes to walk from the car to class.
“At the present time parking on the Milton Campus that is considered to be convenient by many students, faculty and staff is at a premium,” Milton provost Dr. Martin Gonzalez said. “We have adequate parking for our students at the moment, but if our enrollment continues to grow we will need to add an additional parking lot in the near future.”
PJC President Dr. Tom Delaino asked Gonzalez to add the topic to the campus plan last year. A committee has been appointed composed of PJC faculty, staff and students, as well as representatives from the University of Florida who have a center located at the Milton Campus, to recommend the best location for the new parking area.
Security officials on campus say there are more than enough parking spaces for everyone. And all the spaces are never full.
“I believe there are more than enough spaces,” James Wilker, a student security officer on the campus responsible for handing out tickets, said, “but laziness plays a big part. Some kids just don’t want to walk that far.”
“The parking situation would be perfect,” Wilker said, “if students would act smart. Car-pooling can help reduce the number of vehicles.”
On any given trip to hand out tickets Wilker will write anywhere from 24 to 48 tickets. The biggest reasons are the vehicles’ absence of a decal or parking in an incorrect location.
“If the cars don’t have decals, they don’t belong,” Nick Browning, another security officer, said. “And laziness plays a big part.”
Aside from laziness, though, is the sheer distance between the lot and the campus a problem?
“Women are vulnerable at night,” Browning quickly said. “There aren’t too many street lights out there, and the huge walk from their car to their class is a real risk.”
So what would these men do?
“There’s a large patch of woods on the backside of the campus,” Wilker said. “That would be a great spot for more spaces.”
“And I would add sidewalks and streetlights for safety,” Browning added. “The Pensacola campus has implemented these ideas, and it’s helped.”
Gonzalez said that for now, if you want the best parking spots on the Milton Campus the best plan is to come to class a few minutes early.
“We understand when students have to park in unauthorized areas, but we have to give ‘warning’ parking tickets and then ‘real’ tickets when they park in places that damage property or create a danger to the flow of traffic or for students who are walking in the parking areas,” he said.