During the first week of school, things are usually crazy for everyone. Students are running around to get their textbooks, One Cards, free bus passes and parking permits. Instructors equally as busy getting their Blackboard sites set up for their courses and finalizing their syllabi.

When the hallways are busy with students and instructors, it means the parking lots with be just as bustling with vehicles. For many, it can feel like a big game of “find the parking spot.”

“People are parking out of marked stalls because it is so full. It is not just the students, it is the staff as well,” said Sergeant Joseph Steffen, the parking public safety officer. Cars have been parked on the grass, the side of the driving parts of the lots, and even the marked handicap stalls. These are what Steffen would consider some of the worst parking jobs.

Things also become complicated when others park directly behind another car. “The worst you see are when they start when people blocking other people in,” said Steffen. “It is one thing to park illegally, then when you start inconvenience someone else’s day … that is when we have worst problems with it, that is when we tow them.”

During the first two or three days of the current Fall semester, five students called public safety about being parked in according to Steffen.

Many cars in the Madison College lots received written warnings at the begging of the year, as well. In terms of the number of warnings given, Steffen describes the number during “the first two or three days around the ball park of 500 or more.”

Steffen has handy advice for everyone looking to successfully park in the lots. “The best advice I have would be to get here earlier,” said Steffen. According to Steffen, it is best to arrive about an hour before your class so you have time to find a spot.

Another piece of advice that Steffen has is to utilize the overflow parking lots that are available. Feel free to park in parking lots J and K, which are not just for the Goodman Sport Complex or baseball field, but for all students looking to parking during the school day. “It is not that far of a walk. You can park, and then walk right in,” said Steffen on walking from the overflow parking lot and lot K. There is also an overflow parking lot that is located off of Straubel Street behind the Wisconsin Army National Guard Armory.

“Think of others,” said Steffen in his last piece of advice for dealing with the parking lots. He wants people to be patient and cordial to each other while trying to find a spot.