Engineering major Jae Lee had so much trouble finding a parking spot at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning that he was 25 minutes late for an exam.

Lee, along with many students, are highly anticipating the finished parking structure.

“If the rest of the parking structure would have been available, I wouldn’t have been late for class,” Lee, 20, said. “Hopefully, it will be finished soon.”

With the construction originally set to finish next month, it has been pushed back to June because of the weather during the winter season along with some slight glitches.

Tom Brown, assistant director of facilities planning and services, said students should stay patient because the finished product of the structure is just a few months away.

“We are pulling for a finish in June,” Brown said. “Originally, it was supposed to be in May, but the weather kind of set things back for us.”

The first two levels of the five-level, 1,280-capacity parking structure available for use until 4 p.m.

Brown said students are very lucky because officials originally did not want the structure to be opened at all until the construction workers said the first two floors were OK for students to use.

The parking structure’s elevators are one of the key elements that they are currently working on.

Once they get all of the elevators working, then that is when the structure will be available for full use along with the final touches of the top three floors.

With the graduation ceremony in June, people usually have trouble finding places to park around campus.

Brown said the construction workers and school officials will try their best to have the structure available by graduation so people will have a place to park for the ceremony.

“Since we are shooting for June, we are also trying to make graduation as a target date,” Brown said. “People have a hard time finding a parking spot for graduation so it would be nice to have it available by then.”

If the structure is not available for June, then the structure will not be available for the summer semester. Students will then have to wait for the fall semester for the structure to be finished.

Brown said that he knows students are growing more impatient with the structure as it was initially set to finish next month.

Math major Matthew Springs is hoping that the new structure will be opened soon so that he will have an easier time finding a parking spot.

“I sure hope it will be finished by June,” Springs said. “I thought it was going to be for May, but as long as the structure gets finished then that is fine with me.”

Chief of Police Mike Trevis reminded students that they should stay patient once again because the structure is almost finished or, as he advised students earlier in the semester, try to get to school early and get out of their comfort zone.

“Students should be more patient or get to school on time to find parking,” Trevis said. “Students are too comfortable to get to class 15 minutes before to find parking instead of an earlier time. You have to make sacrifices.”

Lee said he knows he is to blame with regard to finding parking but also blames the structure for not being finished yet.

“Yeah, I know it’s my fault, but if the structure was open, I wouldn’t have to worry,” he said.