Let’s face it: There is a big problem with our parking.

It seems there are always students driving around in endless circles trying to find a parking spot, hoping they won’t be late for class yet again.

It’s no surprise the general understanding here is if you arrive any time after 8 a.m. you are most likely out of luck for any hopes of finding a spot anywhere.

Setting aside the fact there are simply not enough spaces for all the students, commuting and local, there are two specific areas on campus I think we need to focus on to improve parking here.

What happens when a student rolls their ankle or is incredibly sick and needs to go to Health Services? They could be dropped off in front of the building by a friend, but if not they are going to have to hobble their way from their car in order to get there.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are two 15-minute parking spots directly in front of Health Services, yet both of spaces have been occupied by NIU service vehicles two of the three times I drove by them last week during school hours.

If a sick student can’t park there or in the other 15-minute parking spots by the police station doors, also constantly occupied by NIU service vehicles, then they are forced to park across the street at the pay parking behind the Campus Life Building.

“Students have come in with rolled or broken ankles or they’re really sick and have to walk all the way in here,” said Donna Politsch, an ambulatory care aide at Health Services. “There should be parking for people that are really sick or injured; it’s not fair that they have to walk. We need more than two 15-minute spaces.”

With orientation in full swing I have noticed another flaw to NIU’s parking system: Guests visiting the campus for perhaps the first time must pay $5 in order to park in the guest lot. That seems like a steep price for parents and potential future students who want to come see NIU’s campus.

They try to make it better by offering the visitors $5 off any purchase at the University Bookstore, but that seems to be a ploy to get more money from future students and families. Instead, NIU should allow all visiting orientation families to park for free in order to help make them feel more welcome.

“Visitors, especially future students, should be allowed to have a visitor’s pass,” said Brandon Makthepharaks, French master’s student and graduate teaching assistant. “They really need to change the system for parking here. Adding another parking garage would be a great start to a solution to this problem.”

It should not be so difficult and expensive for students to find parking spaces, especially for potential students and families visiting for orientation. More importantly, sick or injured students should be able to get medical help without having to suffer more by parking a block away from Health Services.

NIU has to do some seriously rethinking about parking instead of perpetuating its apparent negligence towards the benefit of its entire student population.