As a commuter at Bloomsburg University, I enjoy not paying for the housing and meal plans, as I live a mere 30 minutes away from campus. The drives up are nice and peaceful (when it is not snowing or raining), but when I arrive on campus, I am greeted with a half-paved mess of a lot that poses a hazard to students when the weather is all but ideal.

As I pull through the dreaded Purple Lot the gravel under my wheels and the dirt cover the lines where I am supposed to park and the travel up to campus always seems like a treacherous journey.

I make attempts to drive up as early as I can to take one of the treasure spots by the bridge where there is actual asphalt, but those spots are close to gold and fill up faster than I can spot them.

So, I usually end up parking in the forgotten land of Bloomsburg University, where there are no parking lines, no asphalt, crooked piles of dirt, and holes in the ground where the punished students of early years of college are forced to park.

The black lot, on the other hand, is superb. There are clear parking spots, the lot is easy to plow and clear of hazards when the weather is awful (as it is bound to be this semester), and there is a plentiful amount of parking for students and staff alike.

Unfortunately, the purple lot is the neglected, unfavored child of the parking lots at Bloomsburg University; it is half-put together and forgotten.
The issue is that the University is spending money making additions to the student rec center and a new building with yet another coffee shop, but the purple lot remains a dilapidated excuse of a place to park for freshmen and sophomore students.

I’ve spoken to a few students that have complaints about the Purple Lot as well. Oceana Barillaro, a sophomore who commutes, says, “It is already in an inconvenient location, so the fact that it is not even paved and does not have clear parking spots and seems neglected in bad weather just makes it worse.”

Next year I will be allowed to finally park in a lot that I can safely place my car while I am attending classes, with a walk to campus that does not take an average of 10 minutes (I have actually timed myself walking from the purple lot to the library).

It will be such a relief to have plentiful parking spots to choose from and to have the safety of plowed asphalt in the fall and winter semesters compared to the hazardous conditions of the gravel in the purple lot.

But there is an influx of students who are coming to Bloomsburg University who deserve a lot that is paved and well-maintained, and for those students, I hope the university does something about that poor excuse of a parking lot.

Sabin is a sophomore Mass Communications major and an Op/Ed Columnist for The Voice.