Parking, noisy Library discussed at Town Hall meeting
Student Government hears students voice concerns at the town hall meeting in the Marshall Student Center on Wednesday.
ORACLE PHOTO / ADAM MATHIEU
Students had the opportunity to voice their grievances directly to their representatives at a Student Government (SG) town hall meeting Wednesday night.
Among the topics discussed by the roughly 20 students in attendance were housing, safety, parking and the improvement of certain locations on campus. The event was held in the Marshall Student Center (MSC).
On the topic of parking, students spoke strongly about spaces in lots at USF Health; one student even said he skips class because he can’t find a parking spot.
SG Chief Justice Sammy Hamed said Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) is taking care of allocating more spots for students.
“Every year, PATS looks at the demographics of new students and they reallocate the number of S, R and E spots,” Hamed said. “(They) will re-appropriate those parking lots to make sure that there are going to be more student spots in the upcoming years.”
Hamed also said SG’s judicial branch is hosting a parking forum Oct. 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the MSC Amphitheatre, for students to express more concerns related to parking.
President of USF’s Young Americans for Liberty Katharine Orr, a senior majoring in political science and biomedical science, spoke at the meeting about the Library being too noisy to study, even on the upper-level floors.
“It’s becoming more and more apparent that our Library is not sufficient to serve all of our academic needs,” Orr said. “The Library is too packed and too loud to get anything done. We have a soundproof gaming room but not soundproof study rooms.”
Other housing issues were discussed, including mailroom efficiency and printing access.
SG representatives said they would discuss these problems and SG President Jean Cocco said he would look into possibly re-allocating space to better meet student needs.
They also encouraged students to come out to future town hall meetings and openly discuss any problems they think might be affecting students. Students are invited to voice their parking issues at the forum next Wednesday.
A suggestion box was also added to the front of the Student Government Offices on the fourth floor of the MSC on Wednesday.
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