Opinion: On-Campus Student Parking
Every weekday morning at Southeastern Louisiana University, an unofficial sport is played. It requires speed, strategy and luck. It’s not football or track and field. It’s the parking lot dash, a strenuous competition that test the endurance and patience of every lion behind the wheel.
Forget the gym, if you wander around Friendship Circle for more than a lap looking for a spot, you’ve already done your cardio for the day. As soon as the campus is entered, the games begin and vehicles become competitors.
The warm-up takes place in the commuter lot, cars sneak behind the rows of vehicles like predator hunting their prey. A flick of backup light is the green flag, and it’s every man for himself. There are no medals and no referees, only the sweet victory of finding a space before your 9 a.m. class.
What makes parking at Southeastern such a universal frustration is that it is both hilarious and infuriating. Each person has their own routine, some leave the house before dawn in order to secure the precious space by Fayard Hall. Others take the chance of parking in the University Center lot and end up sprinting across the campus. The true veterans are parked by Strawberry Stadium, prepared with umbrellas and a podcast for the long trek to the classroom.
The issue isn’t just inconvenience but accessibility. Southeastern is growing and enrollment is up, but parking has not kept pace. According to the university's Fall 2025 enrollment report, Southeastern has more than 15,000 students in attendance. When you include faculty, staff and visitors, the number of parking spaces does not come close to handling the daily traffic. The outcome is a logistical brain teaser that leaves students late to class or ticketed for making an effort to be on time.
It’s easy to laugh at but parking chaos is not just a time issue. Students juggling classes full-time and outside activities mean those extra 15 minutes spent chasing down a parking space can be missing part of an important lecture. It’s also an equity question. Not all students have the luxury of living on campus. Those driving back and forth to Hammond and other surrounding towns are the ones who take the brunt of the chaos.
No amount of fast driving or positive thinking will create parking spaces out of thin air, but Southeastern could take a few realistic steps to ease the daily parking space competition.
First, expand shuttle routes and schedules. Many students do not know Lion Traxx exists, giving them the ability to park and ride the shuttle to a closer destination. Clear added advertising would help, giving students directions and making students aware of designated pick-up and drop-off locations.
Next, add a digital parking tracker. This could show the availability of parking in real time. Universities such as LSU and Alabama use systems where students can check out the parking via an app before arriving on campus. This means saving gas, time and aggravation.
Lastly, offer incentives for carpooling. For example, carpool spaces or a reduced rate of parking cost for students who carpool. This would cut down the number of cars driven on campus.
Until something is done, the chaos of daily parking will continue on campus. You can see the same determined look on the same faces in the same lot going round and round looking for a spot. At Southeastern, it’s not just a race against the clock to get to class on time; it’s survival in the parking Olympics. And every student who makes it through the week without getting gifted a ticket from a parking attendant earns an honorary gold medal for their achievements.
