Last Wednesday, I exited Interstate 8 West onto College Avenue at 6:45 p.m. and was immediately faced with a red sea of taillights stretching for what seemed like miles on end.
Immediately, my stomach clenched into knots – I only had 15 minutes to get to class. As I sat in traffic, watching the stop light turn from green to yellow to red, I realized the impossibility of getting to class on time.
An hour later and 45 minutes late, I eavesdropped at the door to my class, listening for the telltale sounds of the end of a student presentation, and a chance to sneak into class. My frantic anger had subsided and I was left with a bitter resolution to find out what had caused my ordeal.
But the story doesn’t end here.
At 9 p.m., a few of my classmates and I were walking toward Parking Structure 6. We were excited to be dismissed from class early until we were confronted with yet another mob scene – hundreds of people walking toward P.S. 3 and 6 as well. We looked at one another and knew something horrible was about to happen.
We proceeded to sit in traffic until nearly 10:45 p.m. before we were able to make it outside of the parking structure.
When I discovered that what I went through was for a high school basketball game, I was livid.
Don’t get me wrong, I have enormous amounts of respect for extracurricular activities and events that help earn revenue for our school or facilitate the community in general – except for when they take precedence over academia. College classes should come first. It’s embarrassing and completely unacceptable for a graduate student to walk into a once-a-week class 45 minutes late. What’s even more ludicrous is sitting in a parking structure for an hour and a half after a weeknight class. This parking disaster could have been prevented with proper warning and more organization.
For example, if an e-mail had been sent out warning students about which structures would be impacted by the game, I could have planned on getting to campus earlier or parked in a different area. Or, I could have taken the trolley and avoided the problem altogether.
After some extensive searching, I discovered that there were several media used to advertise McDonald’s All-American High School basketball games. But students shouldn’t have to take time out of their schedules to plan around such events. San Diego State holds hundreds of programs each semester. It’s almost impossible to know which ones will create mayhem and which ones will pass by without much notice.
SDSU staff members knew about the game, and there was no reason for unruly parking problems. If our school is going to host an event that draws hundreds of people – especially on a school night – then students should have more warning. It’s bad enough that there’s limited parking to begin with. SDSU needs to put more thought into parking and traffic issues.
-Sarah Martin is an English graduate student.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your full name, major and year in school.
