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Driving to class in the late morning can be disheartening. Cars line Seaver Drive from the front gate to the School of Law, leave one no choice but to park miles away and either hoof it to class or take a shuttle.
Parking is so scarce that students often make due by parking in tow-away zones or carpool spots. It is easier to have Public Safety bill your account for the $20 parking ticket than try to explain to your professor why you missed the first half of a lecture.
It’s a sad truth that there are too many cars for our little campus to hold. Part of the problem is the expansion of the university, with students living at the graduate campus making their way down the hill, taking away valuable spots that are often needed for real commuter students.
Another problem is the generosity the school shows toward incoming freshmen. Most schools do not allow first-year students to bring cars to campus, but Pepperdine is so benevolent that freshmen are allowed and almost obligated to bring personal vehicles because of the lack of off-campus shuttle services.
The daily parking situation is such a maddening adventure that we are taking a stand. The administration needs to appease the masses and take the appropriate steps to alleviate the problem before things get truly out of hand.
We know it’s not popular or feasible to ask the higher-ups to ban freshman cars, but they could at least make it so freshmen don’t feel like they have to bring them. A convenient off-campus shuttle system would do wonders.
Right now, students wishing to go off campus by shuttle are forced to find the three times of day this happens and which shuttle goes where. Rumors abound that the shuttles don’t even stop at all of the places they’re supposed to, so what help is that for students wishing to get off the Pepperdine island?
If it were possible for first-year students to do all the things they need to go off-campus without a car, that would take care of part of the problem because more and more students would leave their cars at home.
Another suggestion is to expand the public transportation on campus.
As it stands, the shuttle system is barely adequate on campus. Shuttles come every 12 minutes during most hours, but they are often so packed that full shuttles pass students parking at the Fieldhouse regularly. How are students supposed to get from the Fieldhouse to the business building or the Seaver Academic Complex in 10 minutes?
This makes it imperative to get a parking spot near your classroom or else you’ll most likely be late to class, which usually affects your grade.
According to our calculations, adding just two buses, one for each route, would cut wait time by at least a third. Four minutes less may not seem like a lot, but that little bit may make the difference between timeliness and tardiness for business students parking on the opposite side of campus.
The answer is so easily attainable that it would hardly even make a dent in the budget. In fact, there are usually shuttles chilling in the lower-tiered parking lot B, the lacrosse field, waiting to be filled by students on their way to class.
As an aside, Pepperdine once promised that the gates to the Center for Communication and Business lot would be taken down, allowing students who got to school early enough to find parking there. Interestingly, the gates remain standing, meaning the school was bluffing. Good one Pep, you fooled us all.
Sometimes with university issues such as parking, it seems like nothing will get solved unless students become more active and demand change. Aren’t enough of us are sick of long waits for the school-run shuttles, and long hikes up Seaver Drive?
Every year the Seaver freshman class grows. More people on campus means more cars. As of now, there are no spots for these new cars. So bring a book to the bus stop and a water bottle to class because the waits and the walks are here to stay.
Submitted 09-15-2005
MALIBU, CA
