Parking vs Educational Experience

By: Chelsea Gutai James White Josh Morrison

Our Research Question

Is the current parking situation on campus

negatively affecting the college experience for

Oakland University students?

Outline of Research

• Survey of 50 students

• Statements from OU Police Department

• Personal Observations

• Gathering of visual material

Things to consider...

• Enrollment as of Fall 2013: 20,169 students

• Number of commuters: 17,144 students (roughly 85% commute)

• Number of daily on-campus employees: 2,000

• Number of parking spots: 9,007

❏ (35 metered, 170 permit, 296 handicap, 8,506 non-specified)

• 7,007 student parking spots for 17,144 students

Meaning: NOT ENOUGH SPOTS!!!

Backing Up The Data...Three main guidelines we used for our survey:

1. All questions relevant to our research

question

2. Short and sweet- did not want participants

annoyed

3. Avoid negative hedging

Question 2 chart

Never ~ 0

Rarely~ 1-2

Sometimes~ 3

A lot~ 3+

Students

Frequency

*Weekly basis

Question 3 & 4 percentages

Question 3:

• 80% are aware of overflow parking

Question 4:

• 84% surveyed did not find Bear Bus useful

Question 5 Chart

Question 7 Chart

Analysis of Results

• Students, on average, commute 3 + days a week to campus

• Majority of students have been late due to parking constraints

• Students are aware of transportation/parking options, but rarely take advantage of them

• Students are fed up and a majority feel change is needed

• More than half do not accept facility upgrade trade-off

• Student experience is being negatively affected

OU’s stance regarding on-site parking

OU Police Capt. Mark Gordon: “It’s been a pretty smooth transition, we communicated fairly well with our community.

We created three bus lines (Bear Bus). We’ve been monitoring things very close, but

all in all, it’s been a pretty smooth opening.”

Oakland University steps taken:

• Inform teachers of possible late students

• 3 additional parking lots to provide 800 temporary spots

• 2 added bear buses w/ real-time app

IS IT ENOUGH??

Possible flaws/ future studiesOur study failed to address:

• How time of day affected campus parking

• Did not include on campus student body

• Did not involve teachers/employees in survey

Future studies

• How parking affects teacher frustration

• Studies revolving around improving bear bus usage

• How many student are actually on campus from day-to-day

Citations

http://www.macombdaily.com/social-affairs/20130906/oakland-university-enrollment-reaches-record-high