Just trying to find a parking spot

By Nicole Donner

As I arrived at Mt Hood Community College on Friday, April 7, I drove to my usual parking lot to park in my usual spot. Instead, I found an unusual sign on top of an unusual road block telling the parking lot was reserved for the Metropolitan Diversity Institute. Parking lot A, including all of its over 200 parking spots, and a smaller front parking lot were closed for the day.
I am not alone when I ask MHCC, “What the hell?”
Not only did that start my and several other students’ mornings off wrong, but it made a lot of us late to our early morning classes because of the massive line of students who also were unsuspectingly greeted by the gate.
As a paying student here of two years, I not only expect a right to education but also a right to park where I please. To come to the school in the morning and see 50 or so spots roped off is okay, that isn’t a big interruption, but not an entire parking lot during the first week back to school. This is what infuriates me about the entire thing: the bad timing.
While students scramble to get to their new classes on time, they also have to worry about the obstacle to parking. It is great when MHCC can host events and fairs and other activities during school hours but not when it affects a student’s schedule. The first mistake made by MHCC that day was the lack of notification of the lot’s closing. That’s a big and popular lot! Did they think that if they closed it, people would not notice? Oh, trust me, people noticed. Some type of sign or announcement would have been considerate on such a massive block-off. Students would know ahead of time not to attempt to go to that parking lot or even to come to school a little earlier. Instead, when students turned around to find another parking spot they were met with a huge line of cars that did the same thing.
Another thing: Why use such a popular parking lot? It is convenient not only to outside visitors but to MHCC students as well. Paying students, I might add. Why can’t visitors use the parking lot in the back of the college near the art area? It is as easy a walk to the College Center as the walk is from parking lot A. The entrance may be different from what visitors are used to from Kane but it is easy to get there. It is not a popular parking lot but it is also relatively close to the College Center or Student Services.
My advice to MHCC, after witnessing horrible planning on someone’s behalf, is to think of the students who pay to attend and park here. If an event as big as the Metropolitan Diversity Institute is going to create such an obstacle for students and staff to park, you have options. Plan it on another day, any day that isn’t during the first week of the term. Have it take place on another side of the school where parking isn’t that difficult to find. Anything other than what happened Friday morning.