Download - Parking vs Educational Experience
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