You drive 20 minutes to get to school. You’re almost late but you pull into the parking lot five minutes early. The only problem is there’s no place to park.

That’s when you have to drive across campus to park, run to your class and walk through the door five minutes late.

With the construction of the HUB at the corner of University Avenue and Northeast Drive, there are fewer parking spaces on campus this semester. 

The construction has blocked off an entire parking lot and a few spaces of street parking.

Students took to ULM’s Student to Student Facebook group recently to talk about the issues they have with parking this semester.

Olivia Schellekens, a junior radiologic technology major, said it takes her at least 15 to 20 minutes to find a parking spot. 

“I wake up early enough to get a spot, but that means [I have to get here] 40 minutes before my class starts,” Schellekens said. 

Audrey Holland, a senior speech pathology major, said she has to leave her house early in order to accommodate for parking. 

“If I have to be at work on campus by 7:30 a.m., then it’s about five minutes [to park],” Holland said. “But anything later than 8 a.m., [I need] at least 15 to 20 minutes to find a parking spot.”

According to ULM’s website there are nearly 6,000 parking spots on campus and parking is “almost always available in the overflow lots.”

There are 38 total parking zones for students—19 zones for residential students and 26 zones for commuter students.

Parking is also available on the east side of the bayou near Malone Stadium and Brown Stadium.

There is also currently only one parking garage on the west side of the bayou, which is where most classes are. 

However, both Holland and Schellekens agreed that more parking garages would help alleviate some of their stress about parking. 

“ULM is always building some [new buildings], so why can’t they build new parking garages,” Schellekens said. 

The Hawkeye reached out to Tom Torregrossa, the director of ULM’s police department, and Jeremy Kent, ULM’s police lieutenant about parking issues and received no comment.