At the beginning of the semester at EC, there is usually a big problem that students cannot solve, which is usually parking.

Students have had an even tougher time parking now than in years past due to the reconstruction of Lot H.

Because of the construction, students find themselves late for class; some even miss class because they simply cannot find parking.

“This is really frustrating, it really is,” Anthony Agahan, nursing major whose car was sideswiped in the rush to find parking, said.

Because of broken parking pass machines, students find themselves unable to park even when they do find parking because they are not able to purchase parking permits.

“I can’t believe this,” Eri Ayskawa, economics major, said. “It took me 30 minutes just to find parking, and now that I do have a spot, I can’t even park.”

Some students have had luck finding parking within minutes, but others are not so lucky.

“It’s always packed, it such an inconvenience especially since I’m new here and I don’t know where else to go. I have to be lucky to find a spot. It took me 35 minutes today and 40 minutes on Monday,” Donald Henderson, theater major, said.

Although students are finding it tough to find parking this semester, officials are trying to accommodate students.

They have changed the North Athletic Field into 200 parking spaces and have been lenient thus far when students park in restricted areas.

In order to ease the traffic in parking lots, police have assigned cadets to monitor the parking lots and sell parking passes.

“Students think cadets are out there because of broken parking machines. No, they are out there to patrol the traffic and make it go by faster so students can get to class on time,” Sgt. Jonathan Ott of the Police Department said.

Ott said that students shouldn’t blame a parking pass machine as an excuse to skip class.

“There are 13 parking pass machines on campus. If one is broken, then go to another one and another one. Not all of them are going to be broken at the same time. Students need to stop having excuses for every little problem they have and try their best to fix it,” he said.

Because of the limited amount of parking available, EC is providing a free shuttle service exclusively for students and faculty.

The shuttle runs every 30 minutes just south of the South Bay Galleria Mall at Hawthorne Boulevard.

Some students, however, feel this is not a reasonable alternative.

“It would be such a waste of time to wait 30 minutes for a shuttle, then you would get dropped off, then have to walk to class. You might end up missing class so what’s the point?” Amy Hata, psychology major, said.

Bruce Hoerning, assistant director of facilities planning suggested that although construction is inconveniencing students, they should take their own measures to solve their problems.

“Any remodeling is an inconvenience. We know that. But we need all students to cooperate and be patient throughout this time,” he said. “Why are students waiting until 7:50am to find parking when their class starts at 8 a.m.? What students need to realize is that they need to get out of their comfort zone.”

The old lot H had a capacity of 261 parking spots available, but with the new parking lot, projected to be finished and ready for use in the spring of 2009, there will be 1,231 new parking spots.

This provides the campus witgh 970 more parking spaces.

“We all know the problem, and we all know that it will be there for the meantime. But as a responsible adult, what are you going to do to go around that problem?” Sgt. Ott said. “This is not high school anymore. It’s college and it’s tough. Fall semester is always the toughest because we have freshman coming in that we have to accomodate. But if everyone does a little tweaking here and their with their schedules, we should be ok.”