Students drive around campus searching for the perfect parking spot, often recklessly looking for a place to park before class begins. Cars cruise and park on Campus Court, often ignoring “No Parking” signs, and students complain about the lack of parking areas on campus-a problem accentuated because of construction.

If the issue was a shortage of parking spaces, the logical solution would be to construct more parking lots. However, the real complaint is that there isn’t enough central campus parking for students.

Of 70 students who completed an unscientific survey, the No. 1 complaint about parking was that spaces weren’t close enough to classes. This complaint, although true, is impossible to solve. Every student cannot have a front row parking spot for each class attended.

To counter this, students can choose from more than 3,200 plus parking spots on campus for student use only, including residence halls and University Park. The ACU Police Department sold 3,215 parking permits last year, which includes full-time, part-time, undergraduate and graduate and even December graduates. Ample parking is available. It may appear that only enough parking is available for those who register, but every car, whether it is registered, will never be on campus at exactly the same time every day.

ACU Police Chief Jimmy Ellison said he frequently drives around the campus evaluating the parking process and always finds parking available. The locations: at the edge of the Big Purple parking lot, in the parking lots beside Elmer Gray and Powell Fitness Center and across from Gardner Residence Hall. These locations aren’t ideal for students rushing to class, but parking is first come, first serve.

Students need to use their legs more than their vehicles. Campus is small compared to many universities’ campuses, where parking is assigned and students must catch shuttles to and from classes.

Fortunately, it does not take more than eight minutes to walk from the furthest corners on campus, Sewell Theatre to Krutcher Scott baseball field, and less than five minutes between the other corners, Williams Performing Arts Center and the Don Morris Center. In the time it takes to walk from a parking lot across campus to class, one could still be searching for a closer spot.

Ellison said the university has looked at many options for parking but found the current parking system provides students the most parking without creating more problems.

The university could decide to build more parking lots, but where would we put them? The campus is growing and a living space like Barret Hall is more vital than parking spaces.

The university could decide to not allow incoming freshmen to bring vehicles their first year of college as many universities across the country do. All upperclassmen that participated in the unscientific survey chose to restrict freshmen as their second choice when answering how to handle parking problems. But restricting freshmen only hinders their experience at the university and will eventually decrease interest of prospective students.

The university could assign parking spaces to each student who registers, but then the ACU Police would be in charge of enforcing the rules even more, giving students something else to complain about. Ellison said in 20 years of working as a police officer, the parking situation and complaints on campus give him the most headaches.

But by the end of the fall semester, work will begin on a new parking lot adjacent to parking behind Moody Coliseum and Cullen Auditorium and one next to University Cafe, creating better traffic flow and more spaces, Ellison said.

The university could assign parking zones on campus-designated areas for campus residents and areas for off-campus students. However, students would still park where they wanted if this took place, and ACU Police might have to begin towing vehicles to allow paying students to park.

The university’s parking system isn’t perfect, but it works. Students must slow down, stretch their legs for the quick walk across campus from the empty parking spaces and find something new to complain about.