Frustrated with a limited parking situation at the University of Mississippi School of Law that has left many of his classmates late for class, first year law student Nicholas Betts voiced his opinion on Facebook.
“Ok seriously law school, there are more cars than parking spaces… That means there’s not enough. Fix it!”
Unsurprisingly, Betts was not the only law student who had complaints about parking at the law school.
“The law school is like musical chairs with cars!!” said one comment.
“Blame the undergrad commuter students who use the lot. That’s what I do,” another said.
Betts’ response was particularly popular among the law students involved in the online conversation: “It’s ole miss’s fault for not making this law school lot exclusive to law students.”
As other areas of the Ole Miss campus are experiencing parking problems and headaches stemming from overcrowding and unpopular new regulations, the School of Law is no different.
Currently, all of the parking around the School of Law is designated as commuter parking, meaning anyone, regardless of their classification as undergraduate or law student, is allowed to park there.
That was not the original plan, however.
“A lot of our faculty remember that one of the promises that was made when we moved into this building was that the parking lot would belong to the law school,” Richard Gershon, dean of the School of Law, said. “That was sold to alums who donated money to the building, that was part of the law school building campaign, that there would be a law school parking lot. I feel like a lot of people are now saying wait a minute, that has not occurred.”
According to Eddie Upton, the registrar for the School of Law, there are currently 450 students enrolled in the law school’s LLM and JD programs, a number much higher than the 300 parking spots the dean estimates the law school has.
The School of Law is on the “Park and Ride” route, a recent program where students could park at the lot off Jackson Avenue and ride a shuttle to the law school. As of September 9, 2013, however, there was no information on the School of Law or the Department of Parking and Transportation’s websites.
For law school students, though, relying on shuttles does not fix the problem, especially since many of them must leave and return to campus quickly.
“Our students are unique in that they are in a professional school environment, where a lot of them work at law firms or courts during the day,” Dean Gershon said. “Not having sufficient parking makes that difficult, because the shuttle system really doesn’t accommodate people who have to go to work or externships for a few hours during the day as part of their academic training.”
Parking at the law school has a strange history. The law school had ample parking on the hill leading to the Ford Center when it was located at Lamar Hall — until that lot was taken over by the Residential Colleges.
A parking lot exclusively for the law school was one of the main bullet points used when campaigning for the new building, but it was a promise that could not be kept: The law school opened with commuter parking.
Students were able to buy law school commuter tags, but there was no corresponding law school commuter lot.
This riled students even more, as it only halfway addressed the problem. Some students, like recent graduate James Keen, made sure their voice was heard.
“It didn’t make sense, and a lot of us complained,” Keen said. “The dean helped get a petition signed, but they simply removed the law commuter tag and the problem went unsolved.”
Another problem the dean highlighted was that undergraduates were using law school parking to visit the fraternity houses, which are right by the law school.
“Our students will be ticketed if they park in the fraternity lot, but they are not ticketed for parking in our lot,” Dean Gershon said. “I think the impression from our students’ perspective is they’re trying to get into the law school building and that’s being superseded by someone who wants to hang out at a fraternity. It’s just not the right priority.”
Not all students see the problem that the law students are speaking out against — particularly the undergraduates that are receiving most of the blame.
“I park at the law school, and there are empty spots every time I go,” undergraduate Amanda Simpson said. “It’s frustrating to not find parking in commuter lots, yet see empty spots in restricted lots. We don’t need to be closing off even more commuter parking when there is not enough to begin with.”
In the end, it’s all a matter of how you look at it.
“The university has to make decisions that are in the best interest of the whole university,” Dean Gershon said. “While I may have my perspective, I certainly understand those decisions and why they are made.”
