With the temperature dropping rapidly, many University of Northern Iowa students are trying to improvise parking spots wherever they can to reduce the amount of time they spend outside on their commute to classes. One of those improvised parking spots is located between Lang Hall and President Ruud’s home.  On that road, there are a few metered locations where cars may parallel park. Towards the end of the road, there appears to be enough space to accommodate one to two more cars even though there is no meter. Several students are using the space to their advantage by parking in that location, where they can be ticketed for parking in an undesignated space. 

Weiqi Huang, junior computer science major, has parked in one of the undesignated parking stalls and has been issued about 15 parking tickets because of it. Huang said he continues to park there for convenience purposes.

“I want to hurry to get to class because it’s close to my class,” Huang said. “I hate tickets but I have no choice because I am late for class.”

Public safety does not approve of unofficial parking spots.

“They are trying to make three spaces out of two,” said Helen Haire, chief of police and director of Public Safety at UNI. “Students do that and we wish they wouldn’t.”

The area along a cul-de-sac in front of Lang Hall serves as a traffic point for UNI facilities vehicles and it serves as a drop-off location for Maucker Union’s loading dock. Placing cars in dangerous or obstructive positions could lead to potential losses of time and money for the university, according to Haire.

“I mean, there is space for it and they can make more money off of meters anyway,” said Alex Wilson, senior criminology major.

UNI Public Safety will look into the situation and try to determine if there is enough room for a third metered location to be constructed. 

“I am not opposed to putting another parking space there if there is room for one,” Haire said. “We will look at it, and I will put my eyes on it to see what is going on and talk to our other folks at the university who have an input on that decision.”

-Amber Rouse contributed to this article.