As of Dec. 7, Parking Lot G – located outside of Morton and Leutze Halls — is closed to faculty and staff. Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Florence during the fall semester, modular facilities were placed in the parking lot in order to allow further repairs around campus.

“Florence put us in a weird position,” said Nicholas Laudadio, an associate professor in the UNCW English Department. “We were already bursting at the seams in some ways when it came to parking.

“We were spoiled — those of us who teach over here work on this side of campus — the Morton Lot is pretty easy because it’s a dead end lot,” Laudadio said. “So you go in and you park. It’s not like it’s on the way to something else.”

Faculty and staff are now being moved to Lot D, located outside of Randall Library. Lot D, which was Zone 1 parking for students, is now faculty and staff parking only before 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Students are permitted to park in Lot D from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., and anytime on the weekends.

“They’ve been doing a good job accommodating for us, but the problem is now students can’t park in the library lot, so that displaces — I would imagine — a lot of cars,” said Laudadio.

Part of Lot FF, located adjacent to Wagoner Hall, is now being used as Zone 1 parking to make up for this loss of space for students – albeit much farther away from the main area of campus.

Parking permits for a limited number of spaces for Zone 1 in the parking deck have all been claimed.

No impacts are expected to disturb handicap parking in the non-gated part of Lot G. The WAVE Transit shuttle has continued to run as usual.

“I was glad to know that we didn’t lose the handicap accessible spots,” said Associate Professor of English Katie Peel.

“For me, the closure means that I have to walk just a little bit further — to the other side of Bear — which is no big deal for me,” she said.

“Others will feel this more keenly, depending on issues of ability, location of office/classroom, and timing. I was worried that I would have to get here super early to get a spot, but that hasn’t been the case … yet. That could change based on the day and time,” Peel said.

Peel said that despite the inconvenience of displaced parking, the lesser impact on her workspace has her feeling lucky.

“When I look at the trailers, I am just reminded of how lucky I am,” said Peel. “There are professors who lost years of research when Dobo was destroyed; I honestly do not know how I would recover from that.”