A full lot of cars in the X parking lot on the North side of UConn’s Storrs campus on December 5, 2018. Students are questioning the legality of advertisements being placed on cars in UConn parking lots. (Photo by Judah Shingleton/The Daily Campus)
Students have expressed dismay regarding the upcoming construction of the K-Lot, which is being built to compensate for the three lots and 900 spaces that will be destroyed for the construction of the NextGen Science Complex.
Lots X, N and L will be lost to the construction, and these spaces will be closed as early as Spring 2020, at which point commuters will be redirected to the new lot, according to UConn Today. The new K-Lot will contain 700 spaces, 200 less than the total for the other lots, and will be located roughly a mile from the center of campus on Discovery Drive.
Corrinne Boyajian, a seventh-semester animal science major, said though she is graduating in Spring 2019, the new K-Lot will present numerous issues to students who need to travel from their car to classes.
“They are taking away one of the most convenient lots for commuters,” Boyajian said. “The walk from ‘K-lot’ to classes in the winter is going to be less than ideal for students who pay for these passes.”
Greg Bliss, a third-semester transfer student majoring in political science and economics who commutes, said the university must explore other options to continue the science complex construction without compromising parking on campus.
“Those lots are the primary organ from which commuter students flow. We need an increasing amount of commuter space – not less,” Bliss said. “There has to be another way to increase the area for the sciences to be practiced that doesn’t include stripping the most important commuter lots out from under students.”
Bliss said he is glad he will be past UConn by the time the effects of the new lot are felt by students.
“It wouldn’t even replace all of the spots lost,” Bliss said. “I’m glad I’m graduating in December 2019 and won’t have to deal with this.”
Aidan Doyle, a first-semester ACES major who lives at Storrs but commutes with his vehicle to Hartford for some classes, said he is already irritated with the parking dilemmas on campus as they stand.
“It’s just useless,” Doyle said. “The parking is already terrible anyway. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Doyle said the current issues with parking don’t seem to be improving no matter what the university does.
“There’s already nowhere to park that’s convenient,” Doyle said. “Why not just mess it up more?”
Doyle said the changes do not come as a shock to him.
“It sucks but at the same time it doesn’t surprise me or phase me,” Doyle said. “I’m already paying $200 to park a quarter-mile away from where I live.”
Omar Taweh, USG’s PR director who led much of the bus routes and parking conversations with administration at the beginning of the year, said he is surprised the university is not funding other matters.
“I’m disappointed the university isn’t investing in a much more needed garage,” Taweh said. “I totally understand that the funds aren’t necessarily there and facilities and transportation may not have those resources to do so, but even then— it’s something that I perceive as very needed.”
Taweh said the university needs to focus on issues that are currently prevalent on campus.
“As much as I know that they’re trying their best to work around the situation, the construction of the lot is really only addressing a problem that has yet to become a thing,” Taweh said.
Taylor Harton is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. They can be reached via email at taylor.harton@uconn.edu.
