If you’ve ever returned late one night and expected to find a parking spot in the residence hall lots, you know it’s not as easy as it sounds, and how frustrating campus parking can be.

So why is campus parking so bad?

“The main problem is that we have an additional 535 students this year, many of them desire to have a car on campus or think they need a car on campus,” said Ron Pearson, coordinator of parking and traffic for campus parking services. “Because of those additional students, I think we’ve sold 389 permits more than we had last year.”

While there are many factors as to why parking on campus is such a hassle, the sale of additional permits also contributes to the problem.

“I know there’s more [permits] sold than there is spaces,” Pearson said. “Especially, the yellow commuters and the brown local commuters come and go at all hours of the day so more than one person can use the same lot at different times.”

Students who improperly purchase brown commuter permits are being sought out. Pearson said a number of students who live on Greek Row or in apartments in the close vicinity of NIU use their permanent home address when they fill out the parking registration form. As a result, these students receive a fraudulent pass and in turn take away spots from the true commuter students.

Students who drive to class are causing traffic jams on campus, Pearson added. The large number of cars that drive in and out of University Circle Drive — the bus turnaround by DuSable, Reavis and Gabel halls — are causing disruption for the Huskie Buses. Cars are stopping in front of buildings such as DuSable and Reavis and dropping people off, therefore blocking the way of the buses.

Pearson stresses that students have paid for the Huskie buses through their financial fees and they should utilize them.

“We have found that many students think that they need to drive to class. That’s totally inappropriate if you live in a dormitory because there is no place on central campus for them to go,” Pearson said. “There is no place on campus that you cannot walk to within 15 minutes or so.”

Pearson also is encouraging students to utilize the Carroll Cinema lot for parking. The lot, which originally was only for yellow commuter permits, is now partially available for students with orange permits. Although students might not feel the lot is the best place to park, for now it will have to do.

“Lot X, [the gravel lot off of Annie Glidden Road] was full several times. Last year that lot was hardly ever filled to capacity,” Pearson said. “We found out that a lot of the people that park in there do not have a permit, which was previously legal from seven at night to seven in the morning.”

Students maintain their displeasure regarding the parking situation, though, no matter how good the administration deems it.

“I hate the parking because it is such a hassle and the closest parking is still way too far,” said freshman business major Christina Espinosa.

Katie Lantgen, a freshman undecided liberal arts and sciences major, said parking on campus is a real problem.

“It blows,” Lantgen said. “It takes longer to walk to my car than it takes to walk to class.”

While parking your car on campus may always be a problem, the conversion of the Carroll lot to a yellow/orange lot is helping to ease the tension.

“Now they have an alternative place to go,” Pearson said. “It may not be as convenient for them as they like, but it’s impossible for us to provide convenient parking for everybody.”