ASI held their first “Taco ‘Bout It” of the spring semester on Tuesday for students to come and enjoy free tacos while voicing their concerns regarding campus parking. With many concerns from students and faculty about parking, ASI brought a panel of speakers to come and answer questions.

This session began with the panel expressing their understanding of the issues surrounding campus parking.

Melody Maffei (Associate Vice President of Capital Planning and Facility Management) understood the issue students may have with paying for parking, “I came from a private industry and it took me awhile to settle down about the fact that I had to pay to park where I have to work,” she said.

In addition to the price of parking, another main focus of the night was the amount of parking spaces available for students on campus. UPD Interim Chief of Police, Clint Strode said, “ I think the larger voice that I am hearing is that we want more parking.”

Michelle Alva (junior, Political Science) came to this session hoping for this problem to be solved. “I am hoping for some hints that they are going to solve this soon since it is a huge problem for many… We’re a commuter school. How do we not have enough parking?”

The big plan to resolve this problem is a parking structure. Maffei said, “ We are looking at a parking structure opening in the academic year of ‘22-’23.” This structure will hold 500 spaces being placed at the east side of parking lot 11.”

This will  be confirmed by a parking demands study, which is currently underway. The data from this study is expected within the next few weeks.

ASI will be hosting another “Taco ‘Bout It” with the new Mayor, Amy Bublak, on Tuesday April 2nd from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Bublak will be discussing her future plans for the city of Turlock and Stan State.