The Hendricks Hall parking area is full of potholes and tight spaces that result in damage to some vehicles, but the reasons why those issues exist may surprise you.

If you like the excitement of an off-road experience or a stampede of cars bolting for the last space five minutes before class begins, then drive over to the Hendricks parking lot for the time of your life.

Sophomore Arlene King climbs out of her car with a sigh. She doesn’t look like she’s enjoyed the ride too much.

But, she’s lucky; it’s 9:50 a.m. and she found a space.

“I’m happy that I found a space, but this parking situation has caused me to get dings all over my car,” says King. “The spaces are too close together.”

The spaces in the Hendricks lot are compact, but still contain all sizes of vehicles. My car fits nicely into the spaces, but it is scary when two oversized vehicles stand inches away from my Mazda 5.

Once I had to enter my car through the back sliding door and climb into the driver’s seat. A truck was parked too close on one side and an SUV had sandwiched me in on the other.

Sometimes the greatest feat is finding a space.

“I don’t park over there anymore,” said senior Dana Kilgoe. “It seems like there are more visitor and staff spaces, so you have to park further away.”

Senior Laura Milot thinks the lot should only be for commuter parking.

Since the Hendricks lot is the closest to most classrooms, it’s the most popular commuter lot.

I’ve been late to class because I had to tromp from the far recesses of campus to King 127. While the exercise is great, I don’t always have 30 minutes before class to find a space.

But, even when I do arrive early and park in Hendricks, I have to worry about getting my car out of alignment due to the potholes.

Sophomore Erika Carson simply said, “They need to fix the potholes.”

Most students reiterated this need and only said, “The lot is terrible!”

Senior Angela Newsom said, “You pay too much tuition to tear up your car when you get here.”

I asked students how much they thought it would cost to resurface. Some said $2,000, others thought between $10,000 and $20,000.

According to Associate Vice President of Operations and Facilities Jonathan Varnell, the cost would run between $200,000 and $250,000.

A quarter of a million dollars for parking – now I wasn’t so excited about resurfacing Hendricks.

When I told Milot how much it costs, she said, “I think that they should just turn it into a gravel lot. That would be better than the way it is now.”

Varnell said, “At one point we were tempted to turn Hendricks into a gravel lot, but there still needs to be paved parking for the handicapped spaces, and the buses that use the lot would still tear it up.”

“The lot has been there for at least 20 years,” said Varnell. “When it was originally created buses weren’t using the lot, so this is one reason the lot is in such bad condition.”

Varnell explained that there are only about two inches of asphalt and two inches of stone when there should be an eight-inch base to accommodate the weight of the buses. Every inch adds to the cost.

Asphalt prices are directly tied to the price of oil and even though oil prices have fallen, the price for asphalt has not seen the same drop.

“Another reason it will cost so much to fix the lot is because the city is going to require islands,” said Varnell.

“I realize it is the recession and the budget is tight, but we need better parking and more spaces,” said first-year Harrison Spencer. “More people are going back to school, so the situation needs to improve.”

Unfortunately, when the Hendricks lot is resurfaced about 40 spaces will be lost due to the islands.

Varnell said, “We also have considered adding on to the Frank lot to compensate for the lost spaces, but that also adds onto the price.”

There isn’t any hope of lot improvements for this academic year and Varnell doesn’t believe that anything will be done until 2010.

“It really depends on the enrollment,” said Varnell. “But we also have a lot of needs in a lot of places.”

Since I’m never excited about spending money, the thought of spending a quarter of a million dollars on asphalt seems like a waste.

I admit that when I started this parking lot quest I was ready to make demands for improvements because I thought maybe Guilford didn’t see commuter parking as that important.

I almost wish I didn’t know why it is so bad, but now that I do, when I turn the corner into the Hendricks lot I try to enjoy the off-road experience. Sometimes that’s the most excitement I see in a day – sad, but true, so I’ll just try to be thankful.