Sara Severens, Staff Writer
New Safety Features of the First-Year Parking Lot Makes for a Great Investment. The time has come for the new first-year parking lot to be used by Lynchburg College students.
The campus has limited spaces for the students, staff and faculty members who drive on the grounds. This year, by adding a new first-year parking lot, located near Peaksview Hall, there will be an increased availability of parking spaces.
Instead of parking in the gravel lot behind Tate and Montgomery Residence Halls, all first-year students will now be required to park in the new lot, opening up spaces for Tate, Montgomery and Hundley Hall Residence Assistants, as well as Hundley Hall residents.
While the new lot does increase spots for upperclassmen students as well, concerns about the safety of the lot have been discussed.
The lot resides on the opposite side of campus from the first-year dorms, creating a longer walk for students after they park. Chris Furlough, assistant director of campus security at LC, took some time to sit down and discuss these concerns.
The security office at LC has taken seven new precautions with the opening of the new lot. The lot is completely fenced-in. Also, no student, faculty or staff member can enter the lot without first scanning their LC ID.
Campus security has set up a specific traffic pattern for the parking lot. The Thomas Road entrance will only be accessible by cars, and students will be asked to leave the lot by foot from the stairwell entrance, which leads up to Peaksview Hall. Also, security cameras will be monitoring the area at all times.
At night, the lights turn on and create a safe place where students will easily be able to navigate their cars and find their way to the exit stairwell. Campus security will be increasing their patrols at night to accommodate the new lot. Furlough stated that these patrols should provide a sense of reassurance to students to know that our campus security is implementing new changes to make students feel safe.
Finally, the student escort program is being heavily marketed. Using the “LiveSafe” app the college purchased last year, students can call campus security from their phone or request for a friend to log onto the app and watch them walk home on the maps function. Campus security will not be able to drive their carts to the lot due to its location, so using the app to have a friend watch them walk home is highly encouraged. Security will be able to meet students for escorts at night at Peaksview Hall, at the top of the stairwell.
With all these new security features, first-year students seem to be content with the new lot’s location and space.
“I’m ok with it [the lot]. I just have to plan around it just like I plan around anything else, just make sure I have a good 15-minute time cushion between everything that I’m doing. But it happens; I mean, I’m a freshman!” said first-year driver, Shekinah Chidzero.
Furlough emphasized the opportunities the new parking lot brings for students on campus. He stated that having the lower Tate Hall gravel lot was limiting and in fact a deal breaker for lots of students considering coming to Lynchburg College. The new parking lot will allow for a greater number of students, faculty and staff to have transportation on campus.
