For Saturday night’s football game against Tennessee Technological University, UH reserved 13 lots and one garage for game day parking for donors, restricting access to permit-holding students in the process.
Outside TDECU Stadium, students who drove to the game offered their thoughts on the parking restrictions.
“We came at like 1:30 p.m., and it was still awful,” political science junior Kate Cade said. “And that’s because we asked questions. We pulled over and asked, ‘Excuse me, where do we go?’ They helped us, but it took awhile.”
Cade commutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for her regular classes. On Saturday though, she came with her friend, history senior Austin Bond.
“The situation was awful,” Bond said. “Blocking off all of the parking was terrible. It took us 15 minutes probably [to find a parking spot]. That’s really the problem, just finding somewhere to park, because we didn’t know which lots were open for students.”
At 3 p.m. on Saturday, remaining lots not reserved for donors were converted to cash lots. Only lots 19B and 19C remained available to students all day. Lots 9B and 9C were accessible with a valid student ID.
“I don’t really know how they’d fix the situation because they have people coming in that need parking spots,” Bond said. “(They) really (need to) just advertise it (and inform us about the parking) during the week before the game so we know when to get here.”
Though game attendees could park in the remaining garages for cash after 3 p.m., students with garage permits could continue to park all day in the East Garage, Welcome Center and Welcome Center Student parking garages free of charge. Political science freshman Phil Pinell parked in the East Garage Saturday at 2 p.m. without trouble.
“There was no one on the third floor,” he said. “Parking was great. It’s about the same [during the week]. If you get here around 9 a.m., then parking in the lots is non-existent. If you get here at any time of day, you can park in the garage.”
Though he parks in the economy lots during the week, sophomore computer engineering student John Sirrieh received parking in the Stadium Garage for Saturday’s game due to his sister being a season ticket holder.
“She’s in a group and if you buy a group of season tickets, you get season ticket parking and you park in the garage near the stadium,” he said. “I usually park in the commuter’s parking. It’s terrible. (The University should) just build more parking.”
Even former students remembered their experiences of parking on campus. Finance major Yuri Sun, who graduated in May, used her friend’s apartment parking area.
“It’s free parking, and it doesn’t get busy, so I just park over there so I don’t have to worry about parking on campus,” she said. “When I was student, [parking] wasn’t that good. Maybe we could get more parking garages, I would say. I’m not sure now if anything has improved, but I hope for the best.”
