Written by: Alissa Flores
Finding a parking spot on Southern Adventist University’s campus can be a daily challenge. While trying to cope by circling the lots, arriving earlier or parking far from their destinations, students have voiced their growing concern about the lack of adequate parking.
Marty Hamilton, associate vice president for Financial Administration, shared administration’s plans to bring more parking spots to campus.
“We have plans for an expanded parking lot by Brock and WSMC and another one by the High Point SDA Church behind the Bietz Center,” Hamilton said. “We also have one planned on Taylor Circle East down by Hulsey Wellness Center, as well as for the Jones Drive/Lower Lynn Wood Hall parking lot, which is across from the Ledford Hall and College Press buildings. We have engineered a drawing for the parking lot at WSMC lot, and I am getting quotes for the cost.”
Hamilton said although new parking lots are planned, they take time and funding. The Jones Drive and the lower Lynn Wood Hall projects will take more thoughtful planning and are not scheduled to begin until spring 2026 and August 2026. In the meantime, Hamilton encourages students to walk as much as possible.
Southern also offers students a shuttle service, which was introduced in 2023 to try and alleviate parking pressure, according to a previous Accent article.
Meanwhile,the struggle for daily parking persists, with some students opting for less-than-ideal parking spaces.
April Espinoza, senior public relations major, lives in Southern’s Village Proper apartments and works at Wright Hall. She said she often has trouble finding open parking spots near her apartment and when she goes to work and class.
“When I come back late at night and there’s no parking, I’ve been parking around the roundabout in the back of my apartment,” Espinoza said. “I haven’t gotten a ticket yet, but a lot of people have been recently. I don’t want to walk from the church to my apartment late at night by myself. There’s no way I’m doing that, so I [am] parking wherever.”
Once, Espinoza’s car was hit while parked around the roundabout at Village Proper.
“Sometimes, I can’t find parking in front of Wright [Hall],” Espinoza explained. “[One day] I couldn’t find parking in front of the student center, behind the student center or behind the religion building, so I just got to work late that day.”
Other students have reported similar experiences around campus. Clarissa Alberto, a senior public relations major, lives in Village Proper and struggles to find a parking spot some nights.
“I came home really late at night, and I couldn’t find parking, so I had to park in an ‘unauthorized’ parking spot, and I got a ticket for it,” Alberto said.. “I appealed, but it was basically denied. I’ll keep appealing, because it’s not my fault that we don’t have enough parking space.”
Her ticket is now a $208 fine.
Shawn Haas, associate director of Campus Safety, said he has not seen a significant uptick in tickets this semester compared to others. He said each year citation numbers could be high for numerous reasons, including wrong lot parking, failure to register a vehicle and parking in handicapped spaces. Haas added that he believes Campus Safety has seen more handicap citations than others in the last two years, due to students struggling with time crunches.
Corbett Cole, Campus Safety’s office manager and dispatch supervisor, said the department’s database shows 1,006 citations so far this semester, and 318 of those, including waived citations, have been for parking in the wrong lot. According to the department’s previous statistics, this number is not unusual.
Haas said scarcity of parking in campus lots near popular buildings has existed for some time. In the past, Southern Village was designed for married couples and families, according to Haas. Now, with many more students occupying these residencies, additional cars have increased the need for parking.
“When they built the new Southern Village, we specifically asked them to put enough parking in and any extra they could squeeze in as extra overflow,” Haas said. “So that helped a little bit, not a lot. From what I’ve seen, there’s usually about five or six people parking in the lower church lot, which leads me to believe that they haven’t found parking [at Southern Village].”
According to Haas, ideas have been proposed in meetings between the facilities group and administration, to deal with the problem, but none have been fully implemented yet.
“What they did last year was under the lower stateside apartments,” Haas said. “They made a gravel parking lot with a bridge for overflow, but the lighting isn’t good, so we’ve asked them to upgrade the lighting.”
He added,“They’re having trouble right now with EPB [Electric Power Board], because EPB owns the poles, so we can’t just put a light on it. It’s a whole bunch of logistics and not ideal parking.”
Campus Safety asked deans at the dorms and Southern Village to make students aware that the university offers safety escorts at night for those walking from a far parking spot.
Both Haas and Cole said Campus Safety has been lenient with citations and registration, especially at the beginning of the semester when new students on campus are getting accustomed to campus life. However, Haas said it is still their job to maintain safety on campus, and correct parking locations are a part of that.
“A lot of what we see is parking in areas that impede fire trucks,” Haas said. “A lot of the roads seem wide enough, and you’re like, ‘Oh, what if I just park here?’ But when you start talking about residents and actual fires, the speed of which a fire partner can get there is a big deal. Even seconds matter.”
Administration aims to reduce parking pressure on campus in the future.
“Based on our parking permits issued and employee permits, the campus has enough parking, just not convenient to everyone’s desire,” Hamilton said. “So is it a parking problem when our number of parking stalls is above the need? Or is it a convenience problem? We do care about our students and employees, so there are several parking lots on our campus master plan.”
