New parking lots planned for north side of campus

In the fall of 2007, Eastern University will have its newest addition to the residential life on campus, Eagle Hall, and also an office/ classroom building yet to be named.

The Eastern network on Facebook.com has a group titled, I Got 99 Problems and 82 of them are the Parking Spaces That You Can’t Find on Campus, created by junior Luke McLaughlin in the fall semester of 2005. It has 245 members, with 24 comments about EU’s parking, most of them are negative.

According to a poll conducted by The Waltonian in spring 2006, 75 percent of Eastern’s students desire more parking, yet only an estimated 25 percent would be willing to pay an extra $300 a year for a parking garage.

Eastern administration is planning more parking; a September 2006 At Eastern email was sent out to all enrolled students explaining the location and number of spaces the new parking will have at the completion of construction.

The e-mail stated that parking spaces would be built by Doane and possibly extend onto Doane Hill.

When asked how the students felt about this possibility, the largest response came from members of the Ultimate Frisbee team. Junior Jordan Davco said that Doane Hill was where the majority of their practices take place since the turf fields are used mainly for sports practices.

“Just because we are [only] a club doesn’t mean we don’t have rights here at school,” he said.

As of Oct. 16, construction plans have changed concerning the location of the new parking lots.

According to Wesley Bryant, vice president for finance and operations, there will be a minimum of 130 parking spaces in all located next to Eagle Hall, with an extension of the parking lot primarily between Heritage House and North Campus Hall.

The sub-contractor for the parking lot project has not yet been determined by Eastern University, but the lots will be completed as one of the final parts of the project and will be available by the fall semester of 2007, according to Bryan. Whether or not more spaces will be installed elsewhere on campus is still available for change, Bryan said.