{"id":26423,"date":"2025-02-05T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=26423"},"modified":"2025-02-13T13:04:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T21:04:22","slug":"parking-challenges-worsening-at-interurban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/02\/05\/parking-challenges-worsening-at-interurban\/","title":{"rendered":"Parking challenges worsening at Interurban"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the winter semester well underway, the parking frustrations at the Interurban campus have reached a breaking point with students and staff alike. The lack of parking spots during the busiest time of the semester has sparked complaints and frustration over Camosun\u2019s absence of solutions despite years of concern over the issue.<\/p>\n

The parking problem is not new, according to Electronics and Computer Engineering instructor Justin Curran, who has seen this situation worsen over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, [it\u2019s been going on for] years now,\u201d says Curran. \u201cI mean, the parking on the lawns is the worst I\u2019ve seen, which has just started happening this term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nursing alumna Amy Davenport shares the sentiment about this problem not being new and adds that this issue caused her stress after practicum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would often come to school hours early before my classes to ensure getting a spot near the building, or even a spot at all on campus so that I could be on time for my classes,\u201d says Davenport, who graduated in 2023. \u201cWhen I worked in the mornings and couldn\u2019t go early like I usually wanted to, to ensure a spot, it caused me a lot of stress and anxiety before my classes because I was almost late every single time those days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A shot from the Interurban campus taken in mid-January (photo by Justin Curran).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sight of student vehicles parked on grass is an example of students\u2019 desperation; searching for a spot disrupts their daily routines, according to Curran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just losing time,\u201d he says. \u201cIf we have any errands and meetings that are off campus, if we come back or if we just have later start times in the day [there will be no parking left]. Today, for instance, I showed up to campus half an hour before my class, just after 10:00, and there\u2019s no parking to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curran has had to use the Vancouver Island Technology Park parking lot, a significant walk from campus, to get to class on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a 10-minute walk. So from there back to campus, you get to drive around, go over there and pay,\u201d says Curran. \u201cThe faculty can submit a receipt to get reimbursed for doing it, but students aren\u2019t even made aware that there\u2019s parking over there available to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curran says the school tried to fix this problem with a solution that only made matters worse for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teachers union complained last year,\u201d he says. \u201cThey assured [us] that there\u2019d be more parking for staff by replacing a bunch of stalls for staff parking, which is partially why the student parking is worse now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This has resulted in students having to park in the lawns or staff parking spots, which can mean fines or, in some cases, getting their vehicle towed. Curran says he has no idea why the college is not doing anything about it but offers some ideas to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea; no one has said why. I mean, there\u2019s a bunch of options for them that they can look into,\u201d he says. \u201cLike adding more parking by adding, say, gravel parking… extending the gravel lot for PISE. There\u2019s a whole parking lot behind the Vancouver Island Tech Park that\u2019s empty and chained off, so they could rent off them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive Prince Solanki, who studies at Interurban, confirms that parking can be increasingly difficult in the morning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf your class is at 10:30 and you are at the campus around 10:00, I\u2019m telling you, you\u2019ll be late in the class because you won\u2019t get any parking at that time,\u201d says Solanki. \u201cIt\u2019s getting worse. I\u2019ve also seen students parking their cars on the grass because they have to get to classes. So students are parking their cars off the parking [lots]. And last I heard from students they even got fined for that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Solanki says the CCSS board has made parking one of its top priorities. On Monday, January 13, the board met with Camosun College Faculty Association (CCFA) president Lynelle Yutani to discuss this problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a meeting with the CCFA because of [an] incident when they towed lots of cars from the campus,\u201d says Solanki. \u201cWe had a pretty huge conversation about the parking issues on campus… and we have decided we\u2019re going to talk to the college about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun College declined a request to be interviewed for this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the winter semester well underway, the parking frustrations at the Interurban campus have reached a breaking point with students and staff alike. The lack of parking spots during the busiest time of the semester has sparked complaints and frustration over Camosun\u2019s absence of solutions despite years of concern over the issue. The parking problem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,326],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-february-5-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26425,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26423\/revisions\/26425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}