Picture this: you leave work at noon, driving over to the Rockwell parking lot for your 12:30 p.m. class in Franklin Hall. Should be fine right? Wrong. We might as well not even have cars at Kent State with the abhorrent parking situation.

It goes without saying that parking on Kent’s campus is not even worth it if you have classes anywhere on front campus. Getting a parking pass here unless you’re senior standing is abysmal.

Having in-person classes only in Franklin Hall is tricky. If you don’t have a parking pass your options are the one row of Passport parking spaces in the Rockwell lot or parking at a business across the street and hoping you don’t get towed. 

When I had access to buy a parking pass – a demonic entity in itself – the only available lots were R-1 North Lincoln and C-Lot All Access. The North Lincoln lot would have worked, if it didn’t fill up by the time I was able to purchase one. 

The C-Lot All Access pass is ridiculous. You can park in commuter lots, Greek village and a few places scattered around campus. What’s the point of getting a pass if you have to walk an extra 10 minutes from your car?

Granted if you live a-ways away from campus, any pass would suffice; but living five minutes away and having classes only in Franklin Hall doesn’t give you a lot of options.

While the 10-minute walk isn’t much to handle, I have exercise-induced asthma and walking up the hill on Summit that connects to Lincoln takes the wind out of me.

I typically use the Passport parking when I need to be in Franklin, which ends up being six to eight hours a day. Offering three-hour parking for $4.05 seems like a good deal, except when there’s spaces open but the app says parking is unavailable. 

Obviously I don’t want to be late to class, but I have classes from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays. I either have to start paying for the spot late, risking getting a ticket, or wait for the app to start working properly, and be late to class.

Although it’s heavily overused, I’m going to have to agree with the sentiment, “Kent Read, Kent Write” with the added “Kent Park.”

Kaitlyn Finchler is general assignment editor. Contact her at [email protected].