By Matthew Muir | Staff Writer
Dutton Avenue Parking Garage’s Dutton Avenue entrance will temporarily close at 3 p.m. Friday. The parking garage will remain accessible via the University Parks entrance. The closure is being done to accommodate the groundbreaking ceremony for the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center, which is beginning construction directly across the street.
Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president for media and public relations at Baylor, said the entrance would be closed for safety reasons regarding the groundbreaking ceremony, and that the closure would be brief.
“The Dutton Avenue entrance should only be closed for a few hours,” Fogleman said. “We expect it to be open by around 6 p.m.”
San Antonio sophomore Savannah Bundick frequently parks in the Dutton garage. Bundick said she would have appreciated advance notice from Baylor regarding the closure, and wasn’t aware of it before being asked for comment.
“I do think they should have sent at least a quick email about it so that people may plan ahead,” Bundick said. “I might have to get my car out earlier because I have to go to work at 4 p.m. and everyone will be leaving out of that same entrance, so it is sort of an inconvenience. I think it might cause some more traffic from out of the garage since everyone has to leave from the same exit.”
Another student, Anna freshman FeKyra Wells, who also parks in the Dutton Garage, said she was unaware of the pending closure. Wells said Baylor should do more to inform students of changes in traffic patterns and parking availability.
“The Dutton entrance closing tomorrow would slow down traffic and is not convenient for people who don’t know that it is closed in the first place,” Wells said.
While the closure of one entrance should prove little more than a minor inconvenience, the unannounced closures of rooftop parking early this month following snowfall left scores of students without parking, with some even giving up and skipping class. This led to a review of parking services protocol, including those regarding communications.
