Artwork by
Dennis Murphy

For the students, by the students

University Parking
By Alice Roach, Corner Post staff

Students question the parking situation on the MU campus daily and often overlook university’s advancements.

One of the most difficult parts of planning MU parking is working along side the MU Campus Master Plan. Each year, the university maps out where new buildings will be, where gardens will be planted, and where renovations will take place. The job of the MU Parking and Transportation Services is to work with the master plan to develop new areas of parking and renovate current parking areas.

“Parking doesn’t drive the master plan; parking tries to deal with the master plan,” said James Joy, director of parking and transportation.

In working with master plan, there are several charted projects that Parking and Transportation Services is looking to develop. One of the projects includes building a new parking garage at the Trowbridge Livestock Area. That garage would generate 2,000 parking spaces and possibly even a car wash. In each new university garage, there is some type of amenity like in the Virginia Avenue garage; the MU Police Department is stationed there and in the Turner Avenue garage; the Parking and Transportation Services is headquartered. The parking division also noted that more parking is needed around the northwest portion of campus. A current project is creating 1,000 new spaces at Reactor Field.

Though all of these projects are in the works, there is “no possible way to fund two projects at the same time. The sooner we get started with one project, the sooner we can start with another and people can benefit from it. Parking is a domino thing,” Joy said.

University parking is an auxiliary enterprise that must generate all of its’ own revenue. Revenue is collected from permits, meters, violations, rent and student fees. Approximately $7 of a student’s fees are set aside for funding of the Hitt Street Garage and another $10 of fees is funding 90 percent of the university’s bussing systems.

The Parking and Transportation Services is making a conscious effort to grow in conjunction with the university growth. Parking is being changed to meet the demands of a growing student body in two different ways.

“One, increase the efforts to incorporate more mass transit provided by the city so it is useful to students and added routes in the evening,” Joy said. “Two, we have continually been building more parking. We can add and increase parking; it happens on a daily basis—it never quits.”

One of the challenges of staying up with the parking situation is not only recognizing how the student body is growing, but it’s also recognizing that more and more students are commuting. More freshmen than ever are driving to and from campus. An estimated 60 percent of Mizzou freshmen brought their vehicles this year. That, in consideration with the retention rate on campus that keeps growing, results in a planning challenge.

According to Joy, the parking situation “is adequate, but not convenient. The people that think this is a terrible situation have no concept of a terrible situation.”

For example, about 26,000 students are enrolled at MU this academic semester. Campus parking provides 23,000 parking spaces currently. On the other hand, a school like the University of Kansas enrolls approximately 30,000 students and provides about 10,000 fewer parking spaces than MU.

“There are places that have capacity, but not convenience. There are places, but maybe not where students want to park,” Joy said.

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