tl20020131-000 "1 1 ***** * ***** ******* 444 SOS - Baltimore's #1 College Paper - Published Twice-Weekly - www.thetowerlight.com Thursday, 1/31/02 Internet problems persist on campus 3 VIP's planning major renovations 5 Towson artists keep calendar full 12 First half run falls short for Tigers Departments News 3 Na tion 6 Police Blotter 6 Campus Briefs 10 Arts .. 12 In a Theater Near You 13 Comics & Comics 14 The High Road 15 Sports 19 In This Corner 19 Bunk Shots .)0 Punt, Pass and Pick Classifieds 23 ()Pinion 26 Searching for every last spot University struggles to find new parhing in light of construction, commuter attendance Mike Morris The Towerlight To help alleviate Tuesday's park-ing woes, Towson officials have decided to allow students to park in certain restricted metered areas, construction zones and handicap spaces without penalty, as long as they have been instructed to do so. ""What a mess!"" said Robert Wheatley, parking services supervi-sor, regarding Tuesday's parking sit-uation. Joe Oster, associate vice presi-dent for Auxiliary Services, said the University ""probably"" ran out of parking spaces on Tuesday. He sug-gested approximately 50-100 cars were possibly left without parking spaces between 10:30 and 11 a.m., causing a large traffic jam on Osler Drive. ""It was one of the few days that I've been here [at Towson] that we might have run out of parking spaces,"" said Oster, who has been working at the University since 1996. The first two weeks of each semester are notorious for the lack of parking, but even more spots than usual were sacrificed this semester due to various construc-tion projects � 7800 York Rd. Complex, Minnegan Stadium and Burdick Fitness Center � advancing into their final phases. Portions of the lot behind Tower D and Lot 26 (80 parking spaces in total) were expected to be used Tuesday morning. However, due to the pouring of concrete at these sites, they were unavailable for stu-dent use. ""We probably didn't do as good of job as we could have,"" Oster said, discussing planning for back-up parking spaces. For about the first two weeks of the semester, parking attendants will direct students to 28-metered parking spaces at the Union garage, 15 extra spaces in Lot 12 and two spaces in Lot 14. Jim McTygue, director of auxil- Towson celebrates Black History Month Saul Stoogenice The Towel-light Student-sponsored events for Black History Month include a fundraiser for the Great Blacks in Wax Museum, an African American Read-In, and a Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. See story, page 3. iary services operations, said Tuesday was the second time this academic year that the Towson Center's lots have become full, and he is doing whatever it takes to find even one extra parking space. ""We're trying to use every avail-able parking space we can get,"" he said. In addition, six handicap spaces in Lot 13 as well as six in Lot 20 will be available for students when offi-cials decide to utilize them. Fifteen special parking hangtags will also be distributed on Tuesdays and Thursdays to students who may park in spaces reserved for the Administration Building's Wellness Center. Ten cars will also be allowed to park in the Auburn Circle, located outside of the Auburn House, bring-ing the total to 97 extra spaces that were not used Tuesday. The cars that have filled the Towson lots to capacity don't just belong to students. Employees at Bill Bateman's Bistro have received special permits allowing them to park in Lot 24 along with University faculty and students. Towson's contractual obligation with the restaurant to provide cus-tomer parking caused the barrier at the Lot 1 entrance gate to be See PARKING, page 7 Today High 51 Low 46 Friday High 65 Low 31 Saturday High 44 Low 18 Sunday High 44 Low 26 Monday High 46 Low 25 "
