Traffic Causes and Solutions in Lebanon Essay Example

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Although AUB is a private university, it has failed to provide a convenient parking area for its more than 7,000 students. The AUB-owned Corniche parking lot located next to the OSB Olayan School of Busines building is the only available parking area for students, and it only has 200 spaces. Up until this year, students paid 2,500 LL to park there for an entire day. But AUB tripled the daily rate during the summer of 2010 after it contracted the lot out to a valet company in order to create “an extra 40 to 50 spots,” said Dean of Student Affairs Talal Nizameddin.

Director of the Office of Financial Planning and Budget Drew Wickens referred to an email sent by the dean of Student Affairs on November 2 of last year stating that “The space allocated by AUB for student parking is only a temporary solution aimed at utilizing an existing space which eventually will become a construction site. " Nevertheless, he added that “the administration is keeping an open mind to workable and affordable solutions that would help students commute to AUB.

The unit managing day-to-day parking operations for faculty and staff at AUB is the office of Auxiliary Services, which failed to provide any information for this report. “I am sick of having students asking me about the parking issue each and every single year,” said Katia Zakhem, the director of the Auxiliary Services office. Last year, a group of Engineering students devoted their final project to proposing solutions to the parking problem. They proposed constructing a building on the lower campus that might serve as an additional space

for both girls’ dorms and parking lots. Nevertheless, AUB imposes strict criteria on any proposed project before allowing its implementation,” said one of the students, Elie Gedeon.

Gedeon highlighted the budgetary problem as the primary obstacle for the project’s implementation. He said that AUB relies on external donors for the application of its projects, so why not for the parking project as well. “Everything is donated. Even trees,” said Gedeon. “Scarcity of land is another problem that needs to be addressed,” said Dean of Students Affairs Nizameddin. AUB cannot please everyone. ”

He added that the new Vice President for University Advancement Richard Brow is open to any proposal as long as it is “scientific” and meets AUB standards. Moreover, according to the university parking policies, “parking spaces may be designated for residences and handicapped persons. ” However, even dorms residents do not have access to any parking area. The girls’ dorms for instance, located on the lower campus, only have access to a small segment of a paved road outside the gates, barely fitting 25 cars.

I had to make an agreement with the parking lot of a building in Hamra in order to be able to park there,” said Laila Arafeh, an Architecture student who lives on the lower campus. Her dorm is 25 minutes’ walk from her parking lot. “This is not convenient at all since each time I want to use my car, I have to go all the way up to Hamra in order to get it,” she said. There is a free space next to the dorms. However, it is only accessible for faculty and staff.

In fact, AUB provides around seven parking spots for faculty and staff, including two located next to the girls’ dorms.

Yet none of these spaces are available for students. “Even at night, when the employees leave, AUB would rather keep this space empty than make it useful for students,” said Arafeh. Many other students living on campus are not even taking the risk of getting a car since they find it “so impractical,” said Noor El Solh, 20, a Nutrition major. She added that “getting a car is such a burden; I would rather wait until I graduate to get one in order to at least be able to park it. ” “Turning 18 and getting a driving license is no longer the absolute dream of any teen,” said Arafeh.