Many Hood commuter students pound their steering wheels and scramble across campus around eight a.m. Every morning in order to try to find a parking spot in one of the five campus lots offered for parking.

With more students being admitted to Hood each year, many students feel concern that parking will become even more limited in the future.

“Parking is currently a big problem for students, especially commuter students.  With resident students and faculty taking up the majority of spaces on campus, it is sometimes really difficult for commuters to find a space to park before morning classes,” exec board member for Hood Commuter Council Mercedes Barbosa said.

This year, there are 658 parking spaces on campus to be used by an undergraduate population of approximately 1600 students, a graduate population of approximately 900 students, and a faculty and staff of approximately 1000. 

Off campus, there are 50 additional parking spots on Rosemont Ave. and additional parking offered by Frederick Memorial Hospital next to the Hood campus.

“The problem seems to only get worse each year.  There seems to be more students and fewer spaces,” Barbosa said.

People who wish to park at Hood can go online to fill out a vehicle registration form and receive a parking pass from the department of campus safety.  Anyone with a Hood parking pass can park in the lots behind the Hodson Science and Technology Center, Gambrill Gymnasium, the Chapel, the Marx Center, and the Athletic Center parking lots.

Specifically, students who live in the residence halls are designated the parking lots behind Memorial Hall, Smith Hall, and Coblentz Hall to park.  Hood administration reserves the Whitaker lot for commuter student parking. 

“In my 30 plus years of experience in higher education, I have never been associated with a college where everyone believed sufficient parking existed,” Vice President of Finances and Treasurer at Hood Chuck Mann said.

Despite student concerns, Hood follows government standards that require a certain number of parking spaces for buildings.

“Hood has the appropriate number of parking spaces as required by the City of Frederick,” Mann continued.

Hood allows students receive a parking pass for $25, which compared to other colleges is relatively low, according to Hood’s Campus Safety chief Richard Puller.

However, despite the low cost, some students still feel that the hassle to park on campus outweighs the positive savings to buy a parking pass.

“Parking at Hood us much cheaper than even community colleges,” Barbosa said.  “Still, it is stressful to need to drive all around campus looking for a parking spot ten minutes before class to only find you need to park on the street.  It is hard for commuters to come to class on time.”

Some resident students also feel that parking on campus does not stop with commuter students, and stems to problems within the residence halls.

“I live in Shriner [Hall], and if I need to leave during the day to run to the store or go to an appointment, I risk loosing my spot in the parking lot to someone who doesn’t even live there.  There have been a lot of times that I have needed to park all the way across campus from Shriner, which is really inconvenient,” sophomore Maggie McGill said.

Hood, unlike several other small colleges in the area, allows freshman resident students to keep cars on campus which causes another source of contention among the Hood community.

“When I was a freshman I thought it was cool to keep my car on campus because none of my other friends could do that [at their colleges].  But now I think that because there are so many incoming students, parking should be reserved for upperclassmen,” McGill said.

Despite student concerns, there are no immediate plans to increase parking on campus.

“The College does not have plans at this time to add parking spaces.  Should another building be constructed in the future, however, Hood will be required to increase parking proportionately,” Mann said.

Even though there are no plans for the construction of another parking lot or area, the Hood faculty stands committed to help students in mitigating parking issues and to ease student concerns.

“Parking is a challenge for every campus in the nation. I know it can be challenging at times for some students but I am confident. We continue to address issues whenever they arise. [The staff at Hood] committed to being good neighbors and helping our students succeed,” Puller said.

Read more about Hood parking on the Hood official website.