By Shannon Hernandez, Mar. 1, 2022
On Feb.12, Cal Poly Pomona students returned to campus after a three-week return to online instruction. Not only is the campus community lively, but so are its parking spaces.
With the sudden transition in being back on campus, students shared their thoughts with The Poly Post on how the parking situation has been at the semester’s start.
Juan Gomez | civil engineering student
“It’s difficult because I know not everyone needs to be here every day of the week. For example, some are here only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The school should be a little more lenient with the parking fees especially since we were remote for three weeks and then suddenly came back in person. This sudden shift is difficult for us, and parking is difficult to find as well.”
Lenia Morales | biology student
“I normally have 8 a.m. classes, so I kind of beat all the traffic, but I know that a lot of students that have classes in the afternoon struggle to find parking. It would be nice to have another parking structure because it is stressful to look for parking. Parking passes are also really expensive and so it sucks when you pay for it and still can’t get any parking.”
Sabrina Muñoz | sociology student
“It’s difficult to find parking. I come to school with my brother, and we can’t really find parking so it’s pretty frustrating.”
Jonathan Garcia | undecided
“This semester is my first, so although I’ve only been on campus for a couple of days, it’s been tough. It gets pretty packed so you either have to hike up or go all the way down so that always makes it a long walk to your classes.”
Agnes Jee | visual communications design student
“It’s a little hard but I think it’s a lot to get through the cars and finding a space has been really hard. If you want parking, you have to go all the way to the top but that makes the walk to classes much further.”
David Pech | history student
“I’ve noticed that in the mornings or even depending on what time you come it’s not that bad, but I have noticed that in the afternoon it is pretty packed so it’s difficult for students who are running late to find parking.”
Izzy Mendiola | pedagogy kinesiology student
“Last semester it wasn’t bad but now that everyone’s driving back to campus it’s not only hard to find parking but there’s also lots of traffic, so it gets more difficult to get to and leave campus.”
Maddie Mattick | liberal studies student
“I’m not really vibing with parking this semester. I live by the dorms, so I don’t have to worry about the commute to school very much but by the dorms it is pretty bad. We’re not supposed to park in other parking structures but there’s not enough parking for anyone by the dorms, so it is pretty bad.”
Deandra Woods | visual communications design student
“I think parking has been really crazy and I don’t like that the pay stations are so far away. I know you can’t do anything about the amount of students there are but it would help a lot if all the closer parking wasn’t just for faculty and staff since some of us have classes at night and it sucks being a girl to walk so far alone at night.”
Natalie Doroteo | geography student
“Compared to last semester it’s a bit more difficult since there are more people on campus, but I don’t usually have a problem since I get here pretty early so I always get parking.”
Feature image by Darren Loo
