CANYON, TEXAS -- Enrollment is up again at West Texas A&M University-- and that's a good thing, but one of the effects of that higher enrollment is making life on campus a little tougher.
Parking seems to be a sticky situation every semester, but this semester parking close to campus has become even more of a challenge
At the start of this semester officials at WT decided to do away with car parking along Russell-Long Boulevard making the spaces available for bicycles only.
This used to be one of the main streets commuters would use to park, and now students have two options: park further away and take a shuttle or drive around until they find a parking spot.
"The reason this was suggested and followed through with was because of the pedestrian traffic that will greatly increase due to our new sports complex that is just across the street," said Police Administrative Director, Meri Lyn Odell.
And while student safety may be the issue for Russell-Long Boulevard - students we spoke to say the "issue" is finding a parking space.
"I think something really needs to be done because the street parking was a lot of parking for a lot of people -- especially commuters. I show up about 30 minutes early for class everyday and it took me almost all that 30 minutes to find one, and I eventually just had to park in visitor parking," said WT commuter, Colton Wedeking.
One students adds that even before coming to class just the thought of finding a parking space is discouraging.
"It's a hassle I mean you don't even know if you're going to get to school on time, you don't know if you're going to get a parking spot like right when you need it, and sometimes I even think - well if I accidentally get up late or something that there's no point of even coming to class because if you're late than that that's already going to send off a bad message," said WT student, Erin Mayfield.
Even though it may take more time to find a spot Odell says the decision made was the best one.
"For safety issues we felt like that was very important move to make."
There is a new parking lot in the works that was suppose to be completed by the start of this semester, but officials say that they hope it will be completed sometime before the start of the spring semester.
