Word on Campus: No temporary parking changes for fire-displaced students?
A: Parking Services says…
Last Thursday, I went in the library, representing The Rotunda, and asked a variety of students if they had any unanswered questions for Longwood. Many responded, showcased in last week’s promotional video for my new, online-only Rotunda series.
Behind the lobby window sat a library aide. The library aide was one of the 102 students displaced by the summer fire on the roof of the northeast Longwood Landings. As reported by The Rotunda earlier in the semester, Longwood’s Office of Residential and Commuter Life relocated students to alternative Longwood-managed apartments or main campus residence halls.
The majority of students placed in temporary housing were given rooms in the Longwood Village, a Longwood-managed apartment complex nearly two and a half miles from the main campus. Due to the distance from campus, Longwood Parking Services considers students living in the Village commuters, requiring them to purchase commuter parking passes for the designated commuter spaces, according to their website.
However, because some displaced Longwood Landings residents either already purchased their parking permits — Parking Services gives the Landings residential parking passes — or plan to return to the Landings when allowed, the library aide posed the question, “Why are students that were affected by the fire in the Landings that have been moved to the Village not allowed to get temporary parking passes to park on campus?”
When I reached out to Parking Services for a response, the first email sent to Parking Services Manager Laura Rice was redirected, ending up in the inbox of her superior, Director of Cashiering and Student Accounts Bruce Jenkins.
According to Jenkins, RCL communicated with students regarding “with instructions for parking during their temporary housing assignments.”
If students decided to stay in their temporary housing assignments versus return to their rooms, Jenkins said their permits were permanently exchanged.
Full statement from Jenkins:
“ Residential Life has communicated with all of the students displaced by the fire with instructions for parking during their temporary housing assignments. Those students that have decided to stay in their new locations have already exchanged their permit for a new one for their new housing assignment.”
