Between the lines of cars that wait in parking lots every morning for spaces to open up and the multiple students that complain they’ve paid hefty amounts for parking passes, which they can’t depend on using, it has become clear that finding a place to park is one of the top priorities for students and faculty.

With full parking lots and expensive parking passes that don’t even guarantee a spot, it has become clear that finding a place to park is one of the top priorities for students and faculty.

Unfortunately, NIU’s attempt at addressing this problem by adding a mere 29 spaces to the repaved Chick Evans Field House parking lot was an ineffective solution.

NIU President John Peters told the Northern Star on Aug. 23 that the cost of building a parking garage is enormous in comparison to more temporary solutions. But the issue of campus parking is not a temporary problem and students continue to face the inconvenience of endlessly circling campus lots with their costly parking passes tauntingly dangling from their rearview mirrors.

According to an Aug. 31 issue of the Northern Star, the construction of the fieldhouse’s lot amounted to over $700,000. The cost of this construction was definitely an investment for NIU, but was it a worthy one? With enrollments showing no signs of decreasing, and students and faculty continuing to pay money to reserve a space to park, an extra 29 spaces will not do much to fix this issue.

The parking situation on campus is one that administrators most likely desire to remedy just as much as the students. In deciding how our university invests in its parking facilities, administrators should include more input from the people who it consistently affects: students and faculty.