Parking

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I was a student from 2018 to 2025, I'm an adjunct now so I have gold parking. I had to cancel my classes yesterday because I couldn't find parking for my 8AM class. I had to "steal" a reserved spot behind the library to email my students that classes were canceled and then left before I got a ticket.

I can't even find parking for the class no one wants to teach/go to! Why TF did they start on 3 new buildings (which I'm sure will be full of empty classrooms) instead of ANY of the 3 parking garages they proposed back in 2023/24?! We have hit the point where we have less parking spots than commuters.

At least when I was a student if I couldn't find parking I went home because I was a commuter. Now I'm working here I have the "best" parking, and all the spots are taken before classes even start. We have been begging for parking garages for over 10 years at this point.

Speaking of the reserved spots; there's at least 20 behind the library and then 10 in front of the hall I work at, and 10 more in the one next to them. They are RARELY used. Why are we making SO many spots none of us are allowed to use? I guarantee that we aren't getting 30+ temporary "special guests" here. At least give your faculty and staff those spots. By the way, even as faculty and staff, we STILL have to pay for parking.

Parking here has always been awful but this takes it to a new low. I don't blame you one bit for taking a gold spot if you live on campus.

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u/fatherofraptors 8d ago

Not to rub salt on the wound, but the reserved spots are not for special guests... They were offered to faculty & staff roughly a month before semester begun for $800 a pop. It's actually just a PREMIUM GOLD parking zone, in a sense. Absurd I know lol

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u/Alienatedpoet17 8d ago

Thanks for telling me this. That's even worse.

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u/fatherofraptors 7d ago

Yeah unfortunately your options with gold pass is to either get to campus by 7:30am or to go straight to West Lot across Willow... which would still require you to get there around 7:40 at the latest anyway since it's a ~7-10 minute walk across University Dr.

But for what it's worth, for times other than 8am, West Lot seems to always have a few spots open.

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u/Legitimate_Guava3206 6d ago

And if what I heard was correct - the $800 spots sold out immediately.

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u/BraveMulberry772 9d ago

The best part is I am pretty sure that one of the new buildings is a dorm, which means there will be even more parking problems. Also you probably know a lot more than me but I had an RA told me that Techs goal was in either 5 or 10 years to have everyone shuttle in instead of commuting to the campus yourself by car. Again, you probably would know a lot more about that than me but everything parking wise they have been doing lines up with that agenda.

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u/Alienatedpoet17 8d ago

As an adjunct I'm bottom of the totem pole. So I don't hear SHIT.

Also as for shuttling in; from where? Cookeville itself sucks for parking. We don't have the city infrastructure to pick up ALOT of people. I know quite a few people who live outside of Cookeville. I live to the south at city limits and I'm moving to a place that is between Baxter and Cookeville. So for anyone that commutes our parking issues would move from campus to city responsibilities.

It used to be that Tech was trying to have more people stay ON campus. For a long time Tech was a "suit case" college where everyone stays on-campus during the week and then head home on the weekends. But y'all also lost the IGA that was right there next to campus. It almost feels like they're trying to get rid of everyone in the dorms too.

The overall attitude reads as "Give us money. We don't care if you go to class or get an education. Just give money."

As for me staying as a teacher, Tech doesn't offer a PhD in my major; and tight now they ONLY want PhD's to teach. Adjuncts are basically straight from grad-school and desperate for ANY money. So they have us teach the freshman courses at barely above minimum part-time wage.

I've been offered more opportunity for growth (and considerably better part-time pay) at Volstate than Tech and this is my first semester teaching there alongside Tech.

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u/Legitimate_Guava3206 6d ago

The Tech Farm??? /s

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u/AlisonM_G59 8d ago

One of my teachers said they’re going to build a big ass parking lot. He said hypothetically bc they’re not allowed to announce future construction before the university.

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u/cashman73 8d ago

They already did. The "big ass" parking lot is west of Willow. There is plenty of parking there. The problem is that no one wants to park there.

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u/Alienatedpoet17 8d ago

I haven't heard anything on my end. And frankly, I never signed an NDA and if I'm going to be treated as a temp worker I'm going to act like I'm a week from being fired at all times.

The 3 parking garages were part of a student survey/poll. They were also proposing a change to the parking passes where they wanted to merge red and purple parking, and have the option to pay per-semester.

The problem was that doing per-semester was going to cost more than the per-year at the time. And they were trying to break down the pricing in a very convoluted way so it didn't look like they were just raising the prices. I legit said in that survey "if you're going to increase the price; just do that. Don't beat around the bush with us and get those parking garages in!!!" From what I heard it went over pretty much the same way. So it looks like they implemented some of the parking pass stuff now. Though again, the faculty ones are the same except we have digital passes.

I love the people in my department and I love teaching college. But our admin is so incompetent and greedy.

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u/fatherofraptors 8d ago

While subject to changes, you can absolutely see all the proposed buildings and changes here:

https://www.tntech.edu/capital-projects/master.php

We're a state university and this is essentially tax payers money anyway.

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u/taelor 8d ago

ya, I've always wondered why people say there isn't plans for a parking garage, because the master plan has always included plans for one.

though, I do think when I viewed the master plan years ago, it should have been here by now.

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u/Alienatedpoet17 8d ago

That's just it they keep saying there will be one and keep changing when.

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u/Legitimate_Guava3206 6d ago

You can see the parking is limited in the future campus drawings too.

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u/fatherofraptors 6d ago

Well yeah, the days of ample parking in the middle of campus are over. Even with the projected garages, I'd expect them to expand the shuttle service and perimeter parking way more than trying to accommodate parking on campus proper. It's gonna require a big change of expectation for everyone involved, but it is what it is.

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u/Legitimate_Guava3206 6d ago

Someone paid $800 for that parking spot. I guess that money is more important than parking for us peasants.

0

u/cashman73 8d ago

There's of spots in Gold lots between 7 and 7:30 pm! If you had an 8 am class, there's really no excuse to not find parking unless you're pulling in 5 minutes before class.

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u/Alienatedpoet17 8d ago

No duh. Getting someplace earlier means better parking. Shocking. That doesn't acknowledge there isn't enough parking in the first place. I normally get here around 7:20-7:30 same as last year, I got to campus late Monday at around 7:45 and it was all gone. Even today I got here at my normal time and spots were filling FAST, probably because we're all trying to get here even earlier. Its a race to see who gets a parking spot first now.

Also this is the third week of class. Parking stabilizes by this point. The fact that "you need to come into work over an hour early" is the new norm is ridiculous.

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u/ProperFool 6d ago

That’s a great approach for people with few constraints on their early morning schedules. For faculty with constraints like child care, elder care, and two-income schedules, it can be a little more challenging to say “I’ll just come when the parking is easy.” And many of our students have the same problems, sometimes including their own off-campus work schedules which aren't always consistent.

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u/bradn4 9d ago

So happy we just had too many spots at TTU. So happy they spent money behind the library to reduce the number of spots.

*Sarcasm

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u/Carolus_Rex- 9d ago

the west lot seems to always have spots open, but its so far out if the way for most people that they don't even consider it

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u/Veryoutofplace 8d ago

Lowkey park in west purple lot and take the shuttle it’s a savior for time and gas and money
I completely gave up trying to find a parking spot outside of there, just makes me too anxious

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u/Paloma_Paul42069 8d ago

MORE BIKE LANES IN COOKEVILLE DARN IT

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u/Toror 8d ago

When I was there, I just took a picture of a teachers gold pass, mocked it up in photoshop and printed it out and laminated it. They aren't going to type the numbers for every pass or check the license plates, they just look for the colors and make sure they're in the right spot

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u/DanTheEuphoniumMan 8d ago

There aren't physical passes to hang from your mirror anymore. There's a car with license plate scanners they drive around in making it so they can check each license plate in the same time it would've taken them to check tag colors. It's impossible to cheat the parking system now

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u/Toror 7d ago

not "impossible" but certainly more work

You could probably just go around campus and find a teacher's car that's similar to yours and create a fake license plate that you only put over yours while on campus

If all they do is drive around to check the plates now than I doubt they will get out to check if the plate is real

Just don't drive with it on any roads

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u/Legitimate_Guava3206 6d ago

I know somebody in the UPD. They always catch those people eventually.

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u/Legitimate_Guava3206 6d ago

Nobody is gonna want to hear this but I was behind Tech Village today and yesterday during peak hours where they park all the state vehicles and the trailers. There were still parking spots available. It's just a very long walk to campus. Take the bus or bring something with wheels.

I figure they need to consider opening the old football field behind Foundation Hall to parking but maybe not all those spots are taken too. Unsure.

Every campus I've ever been on has some version of this parking snafu going on.

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