Upon the new school year starting back in August, the SMU campus dealt with a parking issue: too many cars and not enough spaces. While the issue has been prevalent for a while now, according to Student Body President Austin Hickle, help is on the way.

“The first thing we (the Student Senate) did is set up a Campus Services Committee (new for this year),” Hickle stated. One of the committee’s goals is “to find not only long term solutions, but also short term (with regard to parking),” the President continued.

While improving parking is primarily a long-term fix (when it comes to building more spots), Hickle states they are working on short-term solutions. One solution, according to Hickle, is utilizing the East Campus. “Making students more aware of that is something we’ve been working on,” he said. Another short-term fix the Student Senate is looking into is partnerships with ride-sharing apps, which Hickle says is common at other universities.

In terms of long-term solutions to the parking issue, Hickle states that the Student Senate is looking into ways to add more parking, such as building additional parking spots for the new Moody Graduate School.

Hickle also praised the administration for being supportive of working to fix the lack of parking. “The administration has done a very good job on setting us up with the people we need to be talking to, and those people that we need to be talking to are very receptive to our input.”[1]

[1] The Daily Campus has reached out to SMU Parking for comment, but they have not responded as of November 11.