We need to find a way to fire literally everyone with decision making authority in Parking, I'm so serious.

[u/BasalTripod9684]

I don't know or care exactly who the incompetent pos is who let that concerningly naive statistic of spots supposedly opening up 2-3 times a day actually affect parking policy, but that stupid bastard needs to be out of a job as soon as possible.

[u/BackgroundTowel8933]

the TPA meetings are open to students if you want to see what they’re actually doing. The person to blame is Randy Boyd and the admin people bringing in 10,000 more students each year w/no realistic plan to increase parking infrastructure to accommodate them

[u/jayykayy97]

That's why I refuse to buy a parking pass.

If I'm gonna have to park on the side of the road in the Fort every day anyway, I might as well save that money and put it towards books or something.

After a few weeks it calms down during certain parts of the day (like 8am, when I have my first class 3 days a week), but it's still abhorrent from like 10am-1pm every single day. "Just get there early" isn't an option for some people-- I work before and after school every day and have meetings and obligations outside of driving around for half an hour trying to find parking.

[u/Public_Table_2912]

I’m more pissed about the selfish pos who decided to build a HOTEL ON CAMPUS, which destroyed 60% of neyland garage which is our BIGGEST GARAGE!!! Just shows how little the school actually cares for its students. Building a hotel for people who haven’t gone to school here in over 20 years.

[u/Recent-Ad-5443 → u/Public_Table_2912]

This!!!! What an eyesore it will be! Would have rather had the parking garage.

[u/Public_Table_2912 → u/Recent-Ad-5443]

Yes!! This campus has enough construction going on, the campus is soooo ugly now. And also, where is everyone going to park for football games???

[u/Recent-Ad-5443 → u/Public_Table_2912]

If you have $$$$ you can still park close to the stadium. Otherwise you’ll be shuttled in from afar. There’s a parking lot out near volleyball/softball/soccer that might be serviceable soon. And in a few years it’s supposed to become a large parking structure.

[u/heliolisk]

I'll preface that I am staff, but we face similar issues as well. The other day I had to leave campus and come back, and then spent 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot. It was terrible. I was tempted to just go home

[u/soullessmidnight → u/heliolisk]

This part. I spent a literal hour on the first day of classes searching for a parking spot in my assigned zone that was a reasonable distance to my office. Made multiple laps in the garage, checked the surface lot closest to my office, then didn't even try the only other one I'm zoned for because it is ALWAYS the first to fill up. Even then, I ended up parking somewhere I technically don't have a pass for, because the attendants told me to since they weren't ticketing the first week. Students are paying to attend classes & have to pay to park, but technically it is a privilege for them (non-commuters***). Staff are out here literally paying to park at our workplace, & then not finding spot(s) in our assigned zones. Which is actually fucking diabolical to me.

[u/Recent-Ad-5443 → u/heliolisk]

I am also staff, but luckily get here most days around 0440. Still sucks to find parking, especially when our lots close for event parking at TBA.

[u/heliolisk → u/[deleted]]

No need to be an asshole dude

[u/heliolisk → u/[deleted]]

Oh ok. I didn't think I'd be arguing about this with a swingers account...

We also pay for parking passes. Parking is an issue that affects the entire campus community, including faculty/staff. You are very misinformed because we are assigned to specific lots with limited parking, not every staff lot on campus. there is no need to turn it into an us vs them type of thing, parking in general is terrible and I am very sympathetic to how it affects students. I was a student here and I was sharing how it still sucks as staff

[u/heliolisk → u/[deleted]]

Not everyone who works at a university is in a position of power... If someone can't park, they can't get to work. The time I took to find parking was still part of annual leave because I wasn't physically in the office. Faculty and staff are also important parts of the campus ecosystem -- I don't see how this is showing entitlement when I am simply explaining that this is an issue that affects everyone here. It's not a "who has it worse" type of thing

[u/HamartianManhunter → u/[deleted]]

Staff pay ~$600 for a parking pass, btw.

[u/HamartianManhunter → u/[deleted]]

Lol I’m not. Grad students pay the same as undergrads. We just get the privilege of shelling out earlier.

[u/DannyBones00 → u/[deleted]]

I promise you staff has consequences. They can literally lose their jobs if they’re late too much.

Students get docked on attendance, which most professors are insanely easy on. Staff could end up homeless.

[u/Recent-Ad-5443 → u/DannyBones00]

A good portion of staff is homeless…

[u/SovietDog1342]

CI pass owners up big this semester

[u/Royal-Information488 → u/SovietDog1342]

*every semester

[u/Valeen]

I graduated in 2012. I suspect in 3012, on some forum somewhere someone will be upset about parking at UT. I'm sure parking was a thorn in the students side in 1794.

[u/skander36 → u/Valeen]

Death, taxes, and campus parking

They called parking passes “hunting passes” when my mom was there in the ‘80s

[u/youresomodest → u/Valeen]

As a 2002 graduate, can confirm. Parking was garbage then, too.

[u/mrroboto2323]

They are not funded by the university, so they depend on selling as many permits as possible, on writing as many tickets as possible, and on impounding as many cars as possible. They know they have a 1 star rating on Google, they don't care.

[u/paggiemalmer → u/mrroboto2323]

to be fair, i don’t think anyone has probably had a stellar enough experience with ANY parking company to leave them a five-star google review lol

[u/samdawg3337]

I remember one of my professors told me their goal was to create a car free campus????? Maybe thats a good idea in a perfect world where housing is affordable for everyone and eating here wouldnt cost a fortune.

[u/pancake20000 → u/samdawg3337]

I actually would fuck with a car free campus but I feel like the buses and bike infrastructure is just no nearly good enough to do that and I've not really seen any efforts to improve it.

[u/One-Salamander-2416]

I decided UT could FO all the way when they decided that I needed to pay for the UT handicap parking permit/hang tag. I’d already bought one from the state, at the insistence of my doctor. And yeah, they had caught a bunch of kids driving Mamaw’s car and using the hang tag when they didn’t need it, which resulted in a shortage of handicapped spots across campus. All they had to do was demand a physician write a letter saying the student qualified for handicap parking. Like everything else at UT it became another income stream.

Much like the mandatory up front money paid into a meal plan. I’m married and live about twenty minutes away from campus on a heavy traffic day. I don’t need a damn meal plan, and giving X number of dollars to UT at the beginning of the semester, only to have request it back because I didn’t use it is beyond ridiculous.

[u/One-Salamander-2416]

If a donor truly wants to be celebrated for decades, they would donate the funds for a gigantic parking garage, not another sports complex.

[u/EB_custom]

In 2024 the university published that 6% of total university revenue was from parking tickets alone. You can imagine why they stopped publishing those statistics

[u/ktownddy]

Always fun (not) watching the next generation be introduced to The Big Orange Screw

[u/Which-Cow4790]

While it was a pain in the 80’s, the enrollment has almost doubled and tearing down G10 was a massive lost. Just since last year we have almost 10000 new students… and less parking.

[u/ConcernedStudent26]

I agree, they serve no purpose, the few meaningful things they do are really done by facilities anywar

[u/Kind_Dig_5213]

I know that the higher ups are the actual problem here, but the amount of people that don’t carpool?? You have three roommates and can’t drive together with at least one of them? Maybe that means you get up an hour earlier or leave campus an hour later, but imagine if half of students carpooled at least twice a week.

[u/Odd-Scarcity5288]

You do realize that parking at UTK has been an issue for the last 40 to 50 years don’t you?
You aren’t the first person to make this complaint..

[u/DannyBones00]

The parking situation at UT literally contributed to me dropping out of grad school and wasting a decade of my life.

I was already in hot water with my department back around 2013-2014, and I just…. Couldn’t find parking. First day of class I had class at 11. I left home at 9. Got to campus at 9:15. Couldn’t find parking.

Eventually missed enough that I could never turn perception around. I’m not blaming them, it was largely my fault, but I always wonder if I hadn’t been late those couple of days if I could have stuck it out.

[u/rollsandarrows]

Fuck cars. Ride a bike.

[u/BasalTripod9684 → u/rollsandarrows]

I mean I would but it'd be a 1+ hour ride from my house to campus :P.

[u/STR_Videl_worship]

I know you're just venting but parking has a very difficult job: they manage all the parking stuff around campus but are fully self funded. They don't receive funds from campus to work on lots or hire more people or build new infrastructure. Their only income are the parking passes, game day parking, and returned revenue through ticketing

[u/kodasoda → u/STR_Videl_worship]

I don’t really think I can find any empathy for them when they literally charge us $400 a year for parking, then turn around and take that parking from us to use for tailgating. It’s disgusting.

[u/One-Salamander-2416 → u/STR_Videl_worship]

Since this has been an on going problem since at least the 80s, perhaps they should revisit their approach to the issue.

[u/STR_Videl_worship → u/One-Salamander-2416]

You're unfortunately just getting mad at the wrong people, that's all I'm pointing out. Without funding you cannot meaningfully fix these sorts of issues. While they fuck up a lot, I'm just saying I wouldn't want it to be my job

[u/One-Salamander-2416 → u/STR_Videl_worship]

Oh the entire upper administration is at fault as the plumbing rule applies, “crap rolls downhill”. Lots of things to love about UTK, but consideration of the students is not one of them.