“Parking for Fullerton College students is very convenient!” said no student ever.

It seems like every semester parking just gets worse and worse, with the campus having more students and not enough parking spots for students.

Many students arrive late on the first day of classes and some are even dropped due to the lack of parking. And so far, it does not seem like administration has any plans to make improvements to the parking situation.

However, it seems like many other colleges around Southern California are making parking situations worse by making some spots electric vehicle charging stations.

The trend of fuel-efficient vehicles is now taking off more than ever. We can thank the unpredictable rise in gas prices for that. People now more than ever want to drive cars that will not break the bank at the gas pump.

Many places such as malls, office buildings and colleges are offering electric vehicle charging stations where only electric vehicles can park, whether they are charging their cars or not.

As for colleges, so far Glendale Community College, Santa Ana College, Mt. SAC, Irvine Valley College and all CAL States have electric vehicle parking.

Exactly how long will it take for Fullerton College to fall under the pressure to add some electric vehicle charging station?

Administrators should really consider not adding any charging stations to their parking lots.

Parking is already as horrible as it is. How would converting any of their parking spaces to accommodate electric vehicles only fix the current situation?

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the school added any charging stations,” said Fullerton student Sandra Ballarta. “Colleges always like to show off that they are environmentally friendly. It would be a stupid idea, though. It’s not going to help anyone.”

I have circled around the parking structure countless times and I have never seen any plug-in vehicles.

If FC added charging stations, those spots are going to remain empty because there aren’t many students who are driving plug-in cars. Then there will be desperate students who will park in those spots regardless of the kind of vehicle they drive.

Campus security will be happy with that since they will have to write tickets. Those fines are not cheap neither. We have all gotten ticketed at least once, and we all know how much campus security loves to write those fines for us.

What administration needs to do first is fix the current parking situation. It would be great to have that giant lot behind the 700 building converted into a parking structure. If they build a parking structure exactly like the one on Lemon and Berkeley, it would ease the strain that our students feel.

Then, once it is shown that the parking situation has improved, they can think about adding a few charging stations.