As many of us in the Anselmian community know, parking is tight this year. Many students, on-campus and commuters alike, have lots of trouble locating a space, usually finding one on the complete other side of campus from where they need to be. The lack of spots has created frustration and upset among many, especially the students. The area surrounding campus is full of fun things to do for students to do. Whether it is going to the mall right down the street, or taking a day trip to Boston, the opportunities are endless. Due to this, many students bring their car to campus so they can drive to these places, but only so many cars can be parked in the limited spots that are available. It may seem like a lot of spots looking at it, but with the arrival of the biggest freshman class to date, and a number of transfer students, the number of spots starts to look smaller and smaller. Additionally, the college has a high number of commuting students. Those people need parking during the day, too. But where are they going to park? That is the question that has come up, and for many students, they are living in that question. Ethan McKenna ‘29 is a commuter student. When asked about his experience with parking and finding a spot, he says, “I have to leave home earlier to give time to find parking.” Ethan’s days are extended, just because he has to make time in his day to be able to park his car. This also poses issues because even if he can find a parking spot, it’s not anywhere near the buildings where his classes take place. Most spots are found in lots that are as physically far as possible from classroom buildings as possible, and that is more time that not only Ethan, but other commuting students have to build into their day. Other students have different experiences. Grace Fallon ‘29 lives on campus and parks in the South Lot. Her difficulties occur when sports events are taking place. Fallon says that, “Most of the time, I don’t find it too hard to find parking, mainly because I park in the South Lot and I find that not many people want to make the trek there.” She claims that if the parking lot were in closer proximity to other buildings, it would be full all of the time, like the Dana Lot is. It’s clear to say that most of the time, people will park in lots close to their destination, not further away. Some people do have cars, but have decided to stay on campus more often to solve the issue of not finding parking. Kellan Barbee, ‘26 is also an on-campus student, and tries to leave campus,“as little as possible.” When he does leave campus, he says he “struggle[s] to find parking pretty regularly.” When it comes to solving this issue, there are many different ways and opinions on how to attack it. McKenna says that, “The only thing that can solve this is more parking lots, but I don’t know where they are going to find room for them,” and this statement is more than true. After all of the renovations and updates to campus in the past year, are they willing to add more parking? Is that something that is even possible? Adding parking is costly, and will permanently alter the look of campus. It’s also unknown if these issues will continue. Is this an issue that will affect students only this year, or for years to come? How long does something need to occur to decide to make a change? All of these questions are valid, and very important ones to ask. The fix could be as simple as limiting the number of parking passes the school gives to students, but it could also be as difficult as taking land and making it into more lots. When asked about this, Barbee gave a very insightful opinion. He says that he doesn’t know the best solution to these issues, but, “it may take some time before it gets better.” For now, we have to wait out the situation and see how things progress before making a final decision on what to do. It has only been a month since the beginning of the semester, and like many people, some things just take a bit more time to settle down and get back to normal