Recently, student parking on campus has become an escalating issue, particularly among those who park in the smaller faculty parking lot just south of the cafeteria. This lot is supposed to be used by students who also attend Eastern Florida State College as well as some staff including custodians and food services workers. Numbers that mark specific spaces differentiate staff spots from student spots.

With more and more students needing somewhere to park at school, the number of available spots is dwindling, and some students find themselves with nowhere else to park but the empty numbered spots which are reserved for staff.

Some staff members have expressed displeasure with students taking their parking spots, but cafeteria manager Alyce Higginbotham is not among them.

“We don’t have a problem with it,” she said. “[Students] have to park somewhere now that there is no busing.”

Junior Hana Bilicki defends students parking in the staff lot.

“I don’t think it’s a big issue since most of us who park there arrive around lunchtime, so the workers would already be there,” she said. “However, the students who park there upon early arrival to school shouldn’t park there.”