Georgia State University is experiencing its annual parking debacle. Students at Patton Hall, Lofts, and Greek Housing used to be able to park at Lofts parking, but the garage is now closed for repairs due to it being “structurally unsound.”
Residents received an email regarding parking on August 8th. Where the parking change was first communicated. The only line in the email communicating this change was when it listed where residents were designated to park based on their housing.
“Parking Location: M-Deck (Lofts parking deck is closed for repair).”
Lofts had a capacity of 270 parking spaces for on-campus residents, but residents are now designated to park at M-deck. Patton, Lofts, and Greek residents were still required to pay 400 dollars for the parking tag. M-deck is trying to accommodate both on-campus and commuter students, but it has proven to be more difficult.
According to Georgia State University, “M Deck will only be available to semester/housing parking permit holders for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025. This change was necessary due to construction in the University Lofts parking deck. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience.”
Georgia State has an enrollment of 52,000 students on all campuses, yet according to Parking and Transportation, they have over 9,000 parking spaces on the downtown campus.
Space for parking has been a constant issue for Georgia State this year. Some commuter students who used to park at M-deck are now resorting to other solutions such as parking at Center Parc Stadium’s green lot and taking the Blue Line bus to campus.
Not all hope is lost, however. The Convocation Center parking deck is now open to students for free. In order for students to get free parking, they have to register their vehicle with GSU parking. You can visit parking.gsu.edu to register your vehicle to gain access to the parking deck, which is accessible from campus via the Red Line buses.
Besides the closure of University Lofts parking, many other decks have experienced an influx of students. Many reports from students said that by 11:00 a.m. every deck dedicated to student parking was full, with anyone coming in after that being turned away.
With every parking deck being full, there are a handful of options students can use. Alternative parking lots like Center Parc Stadium’s Green lot, Blue lot and now the Convocation Center are all large parking spaces with spots available to students.
There is also paid parking around the downtown area, even though for some it isn’t much of a solution. Many of the meters downtown charge higher than the GSU lots, and have a cutoff of 4 p.m.
“It’s really unfortunate as a Georgia State student because a lot of our classes run past 4 p.m.” shared third-year student Varsha Sudharsan. As someone who is commuting this semester, Sudharsan travels from Alpharetta to come to campus where she then has to find parking and figure out how she’ll get to class.
“I was late to class by like 20 minutes because I was doing street parking and I know a lot of the students on the second day of class actually missed the entire class” said Sudharsan.
If parking downtown seems like an impossible situation, GSU students have access to a discounted MARTA card that takes monthly payments instead of charging per ride. The University encourages students to take advantage of this deal, especially if you’re coming to campus every day.
