We all know that college campuses are not the easiest places to park. Faculty, staff, students, and visitors vie for limited close-by parking spaces. Logically, people who don’t usually live on campus – faculty and staff – have first priority for accessible parking. Students come next, but their parking lots are often further away, aren’t open for short-term parking, and require more walking to get to classes. Members of the Osher program can get parking passes, but they are limited and often require some walking to get to the locations of our classrooms.
The Osher Catalog explains members’ parking options in some detail.
A valid W&M Osher parking permit is needed to park on campus. For the 2023-24 academic year, members have two permit options. Both types are valid August 2023-August 2024. Standard permit ($16). Valid only for School of Education (SOE) student lots 1, 2, 4 & 5 and Kaplan Arena student lots. Plus permit ($41). Includes the standard Osher hang tag to park in student lots at SOE and Kaplan PLUS riding privileges on the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority (WATA) Route No. 8 bus that loops the W&M campus. The No. 8 (aka “Green Line”) bus originates at SOE and runs to the Grad Complex and back with stops near Old Campus/Campus Center, Keck Lab, and McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Courts. Plus permit holders use the standard hang tag to park at SOE or Kaplan, then present a special ID to the WATA driver to ride to/from a stop near their class location. See p. 53 for information about locations and walking distances. Plus permits are available only through the Osher office. See p. 51 for details.
This illustrates one of the issues associated with offering classes to “seasoned adults.” I’m writing about this today because I just received an email with my Osher nametag and information about picking up parking passes for the semester, which begins next week. People who take Osher classes – all over 50 and most over 70 – are very aware of their physical limitations and are often hesitant to test these boundaries. People often decide which courses to take based on where the classrooms are located.
I didn’t purchase a parking pass for this year; I’m teaching at an on-campus location, and the off-campus parking options are cheaper and more convenient than the campus lots I could access. I’ll have classes in one building where the parking pass would let me park, but I’ve decided I’ll park further away and get a portion of my daily walk while I’m going to classes.
And, (sadly, I think, for a lot of reasons) half the student body is now able to live off campus. Only freshmen and sophomores are required to live in the dorms. While I am sure that plenty of juniors and seniors do still use the dorms, an apparently large percentage of those who can live off campus choose to do so. And, apparently the rules for who can have cars on campus are way more lax than in "our day". The obvious result is more cars for the same number (or fewer) student spaces. All of that makes it pretty hard on Seniors! Am glad that Osher is trying to make it easier.
😎