The lack of residential halls, classrooms and parking spaces is continuing to make some wonder if Tyler Junior College can accommodate all students.”Absolutely, classrooms, parking spots and dorms are important and we wish we had more space to accommodate more students,” said Fred Peters, director of Marketing and Public Information.The limited number of dorms continues to put a strain on some students and has left many without a place to live on campus.”I had to live in a hotel for a whole semester because there weren’t any dorms left in the fall 09 semester,” said Amber West, student at TJC.Now, TJC has built new dorms within the last year, which brought along 460 more spaces for students.”It’s not typical for community colleges to have dorms and as we continue to grow we can’t build dorms back to back because of cost issues,” said Angela Nunez, director, Residential Life and Housing.”In the fall, we were up to capacity, and in the spring we’re able to put up to 93 percent of returning students in the dorms…we try our best at all times,” said Nunez.Dorms are on a first-come first-serve basis. If financial aid or a payment is not on time, this can alter a student’s place in a residential hall.”The dorms are on an equal opportunity basis and we remind students continually how to fill out required documents to be eligible for the dorms,” said Nunez.Even though more than 300 students were on the waiting list during the fall semester, the spring semester had more open dorms and provided more students with housing.”We are fortunate to have over 1,000 spaces to offer our students at TJC,” said Peters.TJC will continue to give assistance to students who need dorms as well as try to provide students with the adequate classrooms. However, there are concerns about the need for more classrooms.”This is the second year in a row we have had the largest growth of students at TJC, and we try to provide the equal classroom time for all students and faculty,” said Peters.Officials have created a plan to try to fix the problem, such as creating new buildings for programs that TJC offers.”We want to build a new facility for all the health and nursing programs and use the old building for more classroom space,” said Peters. The deans of all the schools have worked to provide all teachers and students with classrooms and schedules that work best for them all.”During the peak hours, which are 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., most classrooms are full, but school officials work their hardest to provide everyone with classroom space,” said Peters.One class is meeting in the board dining room in Rogers Student Center and also the lack of parking spaces has caused uproar.There are currently 3,407 parking spaces for the 1,060 students that live on campus and faculty members, and some still feel the need for more parking spaces to accommodate them.According to information from TJC, from August 2009 to today there have been 8,089 permits issued.”There has been numerous of times when I had to park far away from my destination, because of there not being any parking spaces,” said West. However, some school officials feel there are more than enough parking spaces, they just aren’t the parking spots closest to the door.”Parking is always going to be an issue at any college…and though the parking spaces are hardly ever full, students will continue to want more parking spaces,” said Peters.Students are the customer and we have to maintain parking spaces…. And we observe and see if we can handle the extra load of students for parking,” said Bill King, director Physical Plant.The only thing that stands in the way are the funds needed.”We have discussed maybe having a parking garage, but need effective funds to build it….likewise a discussion has taken place to build a parking lot on the Northwest corner of Devine and Palmer, but once again the issue of funds stands in the way,” said Peters. TJC officials hope the new master plan will help address these issues.
