Every college campus seems to have a common problem: parking. NMU has this same problem and should make its parking policies and information more clear, uniform and easily available to the public.

Parking policies at universities seem simple at first glance when visiting their university website. In reality though, campus parking at most colleges is anything but.

For visitors who wish to park on Northern’s campus, it can be hard to find out where to properly park. For example, a visitor might go past faculty/staff parking Lot 28 thinking only faculty or staff can park there. The truth is Lot 28 has some green meter parking spaces for visitors, but one wouldn’t know by looking at Lot 28’s sign.

This information can be found online by going to NMU’s Parking Bureau page. Both the campus parking map and the vehicle ordinances tab explain where visitors and non-visitors alike can park legally.

Even with this information online, one might not know where to find it. On some university websites, there is a tab for visitor parking. This gives people who plan on visiting the college campus an easy, one-step route for all their visitor parking needs.

A visitor parking tab on NMU’s website would help make visitor parking more simple, especially for those not used to navigating the site. Instead of having to search for visitor parking under the vehicle ordinances tab on NMU’s parking website, visitors would only need to click on one tab to obtain all their visitor parking information.

Visitor parking policy is only one type of parking that needs to be clearer to the campus community and public; event parking should also be clearer.

Depending on what sporting event you attend at the Berry Events Center or the Superior Dome, you have to pay for a parking space if you bring a vehicle. It would be helpful for university students and visitors to know what events or sports they have to pay for parking ahead of time online, instead of finding out as they arrive at the event.

Parking for events at Forest Roberts Theatre can also be problematic during the day because there are no designated visitor parking spots in front of FRT. NMU could help alleviate this problem by either building more visitor parking spaces by FRT or informing patrons where they can legally park by putting parking information on the back of their event ticket.

Parking is always going to be a problem at college campuses, but these suggestions would help clear up some of common issues at NMU and help visitors know where to legally park.