Students should expect some parking restrictions during the construction of the JoAnne Woodyard Boyle Health Sciences Center. Parking lots B and C will be closed during the entire construction process of the building, which is expected to be completed for the fall of 2015.
Combined, lots B and C make up 130 of the 1,030 parking spaces on Seton Hill University’s (SHU) campus. Campus security conducted counts of empty spots during key times of parking congestion each day. From this count, the university has determined that approximately 100 spots are available at these various times for use.
With the closing of lots B and C, approximately 20-40 cars will be left without a legal parking spot. To deal with this slight overflow, the university has decided to open a lot at Caritas Christi for parking. The faculty lot will also be open for student use.
Those who ride the main campus shuttle can expect an extra five to eight minutes to be added to the route to accommodate an extra stop at the Caritas Christi lot. The shuttle to downtown Greensburg for the Performing and Visual Arts Centers will not be affected by the parking changes.
A parking committee comprised of faculty, staff and student life representatives met to discuss various options for the recalculation of parking.
“I recreated the parking committee that we used to have on campus. We wanted to make the best decision, and we wanted to think of everything,” said Barbara Hinkle, vice president for administration and the registrar’s office.
“At this time, using the Caritas Christi lot allows us to make use of an already constructed lot, and only costs the University a bit of additional gasoline to run the on-campus shuttle up to that lot,” said Joshua Sasmor, member of the parking committee and president of the SHU faculty senate.
“I hope that explaining the logic behind our decisions will be enough for people to accept,” said Hinkle
“I come to campus early, around 7a.m., so I always get a spot in lot A, but coming after 8:30 makes it hard to find a parking spot at all,” said Briana Martz, a commuting student.
This change in parking will not only affect students and faculty, but also some private events held on campus.
“We will not be able to hold weddings or other events during the day because we just won’t have the room for all of the parking,” said Hinkle. “These events can still happen on evenings and weekends, as we have significantly more space at these times.”
Both Hinkle and the university are aware that parking issues will prove inconvenient, but she promises, “The end outcome will be worth it.”
“It is so exciting to have this expansion occurring on campus. We are growing as a university and we need to make adjustments to do so,” said Hinkle.
Students who have questions about parking should contact Hinkle.