By Sarah Pinkerton | Staff Writer
The top floor of campus parking garages were closed beginning Wednesday night and into Thursday morning due to ice and snowfall.
“When there’s snow or ice on the top floors of the parking garage, that presents a life safety issue, so the top floors were closed overnight,” Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president for media & public relations, said.
The top floors were opened by 10 a.m. Thursday. Electronic signs on the parking lot still indicated when the garages reached capacity and no parking citations were issued yesterday due to the issue.
No warning was issued to students from the university ahead of time to indicate closures in the parking lots.
Many students expressed frustration about the situation, and were upset by the lack of communication sent out to students about parking before heading to campus for morning classes.
“I was really stressed about making it on time to a very important class that I have,” Spokane, Wash, sophomore Abby Lane said. “BUPD should have sent out a warning email giving students a heads up.”
The change in availability of parking caused some students to be unable to find parking while driving onto campus.
“I couldn’t find parking anywhere and I had no idea so I just didn’t go to class,” Orange County, Calif., sophomore Lexy Norman said.
Weather forecasts from the National Weather Service said most of the bad weather was supposed to hit east and southeast Waco. This meant that those in charge of making the decision were surprised by the quick accumulation of ice and snow.
“We have been on the other side of this when the university has closed campus in anticipation of forecasts of ice or snow, and the temperature never dropped below freezing,” Fogleman said.
Fogleman said she understands this was an inconvenience to many students who typically park in garages for class each day.
“We have been reviewing our protocols for preparing the top floor for winter weather so we can have a better head start on communications,” Fogleman said.
