You know how long it can take to find a parking space, any parking space, on campus. Now imagine that you can't find one within 200 feet of your classroom, you can't go to class or to work.

Morgan Livingston doesn't have to imagine it. Her hip replacement surgery limits her mobility. Livingston recently waited two hours in her car for a disabled parking space close to Gray Wolf Hall, where she works.

"I try to get here when people are leaving, but I assume I will always have to wait some," she said.

Students outnumber available campus parking spaces more than two to one, and people with disabilities are hit particularly hard.

The Americans with Disabilities Act only requires 29 disabled parking spaces for a parking operation of our size. EvCC provides more than double that, with approximately 85 disabled parking spaces on campus. Still, the demand is greater than the supply.

Finding disabled parking is not a new frustration for student Paul Allen. Spring Allen estimates he missed class four times last Spring Quarter and was late at least six times because he couldn't find a regular parking space close enough to his classes, much less a disabled space. He has had to email instructors from his cell phone while stranded in his car to explain that he would be absent or late due to lack of parking, and fortunately his instructors have been understanding.

Jene Ladke, director of campus health, safety and security, is aware of the problem. He is sympathetic, but is caught between competing priorities and a lack of funding to change the situation.

Record enrollment makes this quarter the worst yet. Nancy Fagan, an employee and student on campus, couldn't find a disabled parking space the entire first week of classes.

On the last Thursday of September she had found a disabled parking space, but three spaces down was a car without a permit. Fagan says she regularly sees vehicles without disability permits taking up the few spaces available. "I parked next to one yesterday," she said.