With the promise of new buildings comes the loss of parking.

Many students, faculty and staff members dread the thought of walking a greater distance to get to the right building.

Some believe the current parking situation is poorly planned and problematic, but others say Missouri Southern’s population has no reason to complain.

“The parking situation here is nowhere near as bad as it is on older, larger campuses,” said Holly Chism, instructor of English. “We have sufficient parking for everyone who commutes. It just may not be terribly close to the buildings students and faculty have classes in. “Honestly, the only thing that Southern’s parking situation could do better would be handicapped parking close to the class buildings. Southern students and faculty, are, frankly, spoiled.”

Even if there is adequate parking during the day, students that pull late hours on campus often feel inconvenienced when returning to their cars in the dark.

“Sometimes I have to park down by the tennis courts and it’s a problem when I leave the library at 11 o’clock at night and have to walk all the way down there,” said Jenna Patton, junior dental hygiene major. “I’m really scared sometimes. I don’t know where they could put more parking, though.”

Often students park in reserved parking zones and are ticketed. Many students think this is unfair, while others think it is easy to abide to the parking permissions.

“It’s pretty obvious where you’re supposed to park and where you’re not, so if you get a parking ticket it’s your own fault,” said Ashley Hayes, junior mass communications major.

If every student was on campus at the same time, there would be 1 parking space for every 1.7 students. However, taking into account recent dropouts, carpoolers, cyclists and pedestrians, the ratio nearly equals out.

A school of slightly larger size, Pittsburgh State University has a ratio of 1 parking space to 2.17 students with 3992 spaces as opposed to 3224 spaces at Southern, a largely commuter campus.

MSSU – 3224 student spaces, 523 fac/staff spaces, 5593 students this fall, about 90% commute. That’s about 5000 parking spaces needed just for students.

Pitt State – 7040 students and 750 fac/staff, 1100 in dorms that’s about 16%. 3992 total spaces, but the city and university joint-finance a transit system that stops in areas of town with a dense student population.