Brittany McFadden-Broderick
If there was one situation students at USC Upstate complained about the most—no it wouldn’t be classes or an issue with the new building still not being 100 percent complete—it would be parking. One major problem for students this semester is the closing of the parking lot near the Campus Life Center. Many students relied on that parking lot as a "backup plan" in case parking couldn’t be found in the other lots around campus. The CLC parking lot’s convenient location not only made it easy to get to all the nearby buildings, but the CLC itself. While the new parking lot extended off of the library provides more spaces, it still doesn’t make up for losing one of the more vital parking lots on campus, many students say.
The rumors about the closure have been around since fall of 2007. A group on Facebook broke the news to about 300 students, and word of mouth informed many of the rest. More recently in August 2008, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal published an article about how Upstate is growing according to the Chancellor’s ten-year "Master Plan". The article also brought up the closing of the parking lot. That was August. Most students forgot or figured the plan was all talk. Maybe the petition started by the Facebook group actually achieved its goal. Now it’s January and the parking lot is closed.
So why did they close it? Green space.
"We are ready to strip out the old and potted Campus Life Center parking lot and replace it with grass and plantings connecting the hilltop site of the new Health Education Center and the hilltop site for the new Library," Chancellor Stockwell said at the University Day celebration, held August 2008. Farther along in this speech, Stockwell talked about how this action wouldn’t be able to take place until after the end of the fall semester.
"Though that is disappointing from a master plan perspective, our students will be pleased," he said. Right now, pleased doesn’t seem to describe the emotion.
"Some of my professors actually don’t allow students to come in late. So, am I supposed to wait around in the ever-crowded HPAC parking lot or park way back by the administration building? Parking at the CLC was always so convenient." said Berta Green, a sophomore psychology major.
Morgan Bucciferro feels that the campus already has enough green space. "It is already a very pretty campus and with so many students commuting to school every day, it doesn’t seem logical to take way parking spots," the junior communications major stated.
According to the Landscaping Services portion of the university’s website, this campus owns 314 acres. Two hundred of those acres are green space. Each semester, the university is growing—whether it is new buildings, new students or both. Though it was "old and potted", the CLC parking lot was useful to everyone: students, faculty and staff and visitors. It will be greatly missed.