New Searle Center parking lot opens

Home News New Searle Center parking lot opens
New Searle Center parking lot opens

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Hillsdale opened new lots this semester to help with parking congestion.

Breana Noble | Collegian

A new parking lot adjacent to both Simpson Residence and the Searle Center opened Monday as a part of an ongoing parking expansion effort.

“The lot is associated with the Searle Center primarily,” Vice President of Administrative Affairs Rich Péwé said. “When we host large events there, it helps when we have enough parking near the Searle Center to accommodate that.”

Péwé said the lot is not open to students except Simpson residents and, even then, only in some cases.

“My obligation is to provide space for the faculty and staff that have to drive here and work here,” he said. They can park in that lot, and we’re seeing if we can allow a strip of that for Simpson too, but the lot is primarily for the faculty and staff and event parking.”

In the past few years, convenient parking for students has become scarce due to the exponential rise in the number of students on campus who own and drive a car, Péwé said.

“A lot of students here have cars — more than they used to. I don’t know why,” he said. “They have parking in their dorm, and then they tend to like to drive to class. The number of off-campus students is also higher. They usually try to compete for the spots where they shouldn’t park.”

Though students may still have difficulty finding parking now, the college is making plans for expansion.

“At some point we’ll expand the lot near Galloway and Olds when we put in the new chapel,”  Péwé said. “We’ll need to accommodate another crowd.”