Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Here at John Carroll University, something needs to be added to that list: an everlasting and unsolvable parking problem. It seems that every year there are problems with parking, whether it be cars stolen from the former Notre Dame College auxiliary lot or an overall lack of spaces. At JCU it is not a question of if we have a parking problem. It’s a question of how the university can fix it.
In the hopes of finding a solution, the university made the executive decision to ban the incoming class of first-year students from bringing their cars to campus.
Ethan Metlack ’28 was a bit confused about this decision. “[I] would not have come to JCU,” he said, “if I was unable to bring my car, that would be a deal breaker.”
Rebecca Diller ’27, who is a tour guide for JCU’s Office of Admissions, shared Metlack’s point of view. “I am from Iowa and all of the schools on my list were able to be driven to. This is not a great idea,” she said
Diller further emphasized a dissatisfaction with how late this ruling came around. “We get a lot of questions about parking and half of the people I have already toured before this new rule now believe they can park their first year on campus.”
First-year students are already not allowed to bring their cars on campus. They must park in a lot at what was formerly Notre Dame College. Going forward, they cannot bring a car at all.
This decision has not been sitting well with prospective students according to tour guide Alex Kaczmarek ’27 as there has been “lots of pushback.” He said, “People close and far do not enjoy it because people want to go home.” He explained that “people want to explore but most are not comfortable taking the transport at night, especially those buses which aren’t great.”
Diller shared a distaste for the public transport system and said they do not even know how to use it.
For many current students, the ability to have a car really solidified their choice to come to John Carroll. Camron McCaffrey ’28, who is from Rochester, NY, stated that the ability to bring his car “did impact my decision to come here and now that I am here I realize how much of an asset it is. Without my car I can’t get home, I can’t get food. There would be some pretty big issues.”
JCU has yet to put out a statement regarding the plan to solve the parking problem other than an internal email to the campus tour guides, leading to much confusion within the student body over what exactly this new rule will entail.
Many students believe that the ruling will impact commuter parking or that it will only lead to first-years parking off campus at the Notre Dame auxiliary lot; however, this is not the case as Lisa Brown Cornelius, the dean of students, said that “this new change will not affect commuter students at all.”
Brown Cornelius attempted to clear the air as to why administrators made this decision. “A couple of the things that were looked at in the decision-making process were [a] demand for parking and the limited supply we have but more importantly [the university] was thinking about the residential experience.”
Furthermore, Brown Cornelius believed that the effect this decision will have on admissions to JCU is minimal as many schools “similar to JCU are pivoting towards this model with parking.”
While nothing is set in stone for next year, Brown Cornelius says that when it comes to transportation, there will be more education about the public transportation system and a shuttle that runs on Saturday “more frequently and with longer routes going to Target, the Van Aken District, possibly even Beachwood Mall.”
“It is only a piece of the solution,” said Brown Cornelius. While in the future “student representatives will be involved in finding the remaining solution.” Brown Cornelius believes that parking problems will continue to plague the university.
Benjamin Franklin’s saying still holds true today. In life, we have two constants: death and taxes. Yet at JCU, despite this new rule, we have an additional constant: the parking problem.