5 Parking Struggles Each And Every CSUN Student Understands
Having your own car in college seems ideal. It gives you the freedom to come and go from campus as you please, making your overall experience so much more convenient. If you agree with these things, then you’re probably not a CSUN student. Matadors know what a struggle it can be to have a vehicle, especially when you have to find parking. Being a CSUN alumnus myself, I have compiled a list of parking struggles every CSUN student understands.
1. Leaving early does not equal being on time!
If you have had the pleasure of using the parking structures on campus, then you know that it’s a race to the empty parking spot, even at 7:30 in the morning! Seriously, it’s as if everyone got the same brilliant idea of getting up early to get a good parking spot. Except in this case the early bird does not get the worm, they’re just late to class! This is an ongoing joke with CSUN students because it has become the #1 problem for student tardiness. They even have a meme for it!
2. Parking permits are pricey!
Every time you are due for your permit renewal, you will ask yourself if it’s worth the hassle of all the honking and long lines. You would think that dishing out between $300 and $400 dollars a semester would mean that you could get a parking spot without a hassle, but that is definitely not the case on this campus. If you want to save some money, consider investing in a bike or taking public transportation and if you’re lucky and don’t live that far from campus, simply take a leisurely stroll down to campus.
3. If you schedule classes after 9:30, good luck finding a spot!
One of the best ways to fall victim to the parking follies at CSUN is to schedule late classes, because let me tell you, once people find a spot they are probably are going to keep it all day which leaves you out of luck until maybe around 3 in the afternoon. I hope your anthropology professor could understand why you were late. This is one of the hardest parking struggles.
4. You are made an example of if you are late to class due to parking!
Picture this. You are running late from finding a parking spot, so you’re rushing to get out of your car! As you sprint across campus, you are struggling to get your backpack on and dodging oncoming cyclists and pedestrians. You check your watch as you are running up the stairs, noticing that you have just one minute to make it to class. As you open the door onto the hallway, you are met with a mob of people standing between you and your destination. You finally manage to maneuver yourself through the sea of people standing in your way and push the door open to you class. Hundreds of eyes turn to you and you hear your professor clearing their throat! You are about to be made an example of and you know it. Being late because of parking issues has become so ubiquitous at CSUN that professors are including such incidents in their syllabi. Talk about a problem that needs fixing pronto! This is one of the most annoying parking struggles!
5. The only empty parking structure is 20 minutes from campus.
Believe it or not, people have tried to fix the parking situation on campus. One such suggestion was to have students struggling to find parking in the G and B parking structures to commute an additional 20 minutes to the F10 parking structure across the dorms. But if you have already lost time looking for parking, going to another structure 20 minutes away could only make you even tardier to your classes. But even if you could find parking in that lot, what if everyone suddenly had the same genius idea and another traffic jam was created there! It would be a vicious circle where nobody wins and everyone would be late! This is one of the worst parking struggles.
