Amid record growth, AU launches work on new parking deck
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta University broke ground on a new parking deck Monday morning.
The new parking deck 840 Spellman St. on the AU health sciences campus will feature 1,350 spaces and an entry and exit to Wrightsboro Road.
It will create a 60% increase in parking capacity for students and employees on the health sciences campus, according to the school.
They’re addressing a big problem that’s slowing students down from making it to class on time. Cars move round and round, looking for a spot to park.
“I came up to it and saw people going in and it’s like, ‘Oh there’s probably not going to be parking’. I got really lucky,” said pre-nursing major Luz Rivera.
Like most, Rivera found out the hard way when she started attending Augusta University last semester.
“I wasn’t aware that I had to get here like super early to get a parking spot so I completely missed my class because I could not find a spot at all,” said Rivera.
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The facility is expected to open in the spring of 2025.
It’s a growing student population with added growing pains. Parking decks on campus are so full, it pushes students across the tracks to R.A. Dent Boulevard in hopes to find another spot.
Graduate student Jolaina Fogle said: “It’s just crazy that we have to pay $50 each semester just for us to not have enough parking.”
Another graduate student, Kelly Farmer, said: “It’s like every time we get here, like other people have to get to school too, so we’re kind of fighting with hoping people are getting out of class, give us a spot, but you know, we’re usually just riding in circles.”
The launch of the project comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the school.
This school year, AU for the first time exceeded the 10,000-student mark with its largest freshman class ever.
For the past few years, enrollment numbers have teetered just under 10,000, but that changed this year as the whole University System of Georgia saw a post-pandemic rebound in enrollment.
The university officially now has 10,546 students enrolled, marking a 7.5% increase over last fall’s 9,813 enrollment total and a 26.6% increase since 2015.
AU’s 7.5% growth marked the highest single-year growth percentage of the research universities in the University System of Georgia from fall 2022 to fall 2023.
Overall, undergraduate enrollment is up 5.8% from last school year.
President Dr. Brooks Keel knows more people mean more needs.
“This parking deck is one of those, we need new dormitories, we know that, we need new dining facilities, we know that too, and we’re working hard to try and stay in front of all of those students that are coming in so this is just the first step in what I hope is many such improvements as we move ahead,” said Dr. Keel.
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