In the past years, Lewis University has had multiple different locations where students can park their cars around campus. One of the most essential parking lots to the campus was parking lot MM, located near Sheil Hall, Brown dining hall and De La Salle.
During the summer of 2022, the parking lot was closed due to the demolition of Fitz Hall. Because of this, many students were unable to find a parking spot near a convenient location, many had to park in far away parking spaces, across campus. With the cold weather approaching, these farther parking lots were becoming troublesome and a struggle for students to deal with. It’s annoying enough to not be able to park in lot MM and having to park elsewhere with a longer walking distance was not favorable.
Fall 2022 semester approached and parking lot MM still remained closed to all students, but recently, Residence Life announced that the space would open once again.
This news spread rapidly among students and the lot filled up quickly. The parking lot is mainly used by students that live in Sheil Hall, De La Salle and North Hall. With the lot opened up again, it is already filled with resident student vehicles and now there is no wasted space for campus parking.
In an interview with the Chief of Lewis University Police Department, he declared that the reason why the parking lot was closed was due to the heavy machinery that was needed for the demolition of Fitzpatrick Hall, which happened during the summer of 2022 and beginning of the fall semester of the same year.
According to Chief Zegadlo, “The lot was reopened once all the construction equipment was removed and the lot could be properly cleaned of any debris.”
Colin Bade, a resident student, states that since the opening of lot MM, there are not as many people fighting for parking spots as they used to. Before that, students from North Hall, Sheil and Founders would look for spots in the small M lot in front of North Hall, when there were none, students would either take the auxiliary one, down in the baseball fields or they would take their cars all the way to the South Parking lot, which is located in the other side of campus.
Students can benefit so much with the convenience of the lot being reopened and not have to worry about walking in the cold more than they already have to during the winter semester.
Photo Credit: Somkene E. Ugwu
