When students at the Wilkes-Barre Campus arrived this fall they were told they could not park in one of the parking lots on campus -- not because of a lack of space, but because the lot had been misused.

The problems occurred with the Technical Center parking lot when after the 98 available spaces were filled, students parked on the grass or double-parked in the lot, sometimes blocking other cars, said Gary Beisel, campus coordinator of safety and security and campus operations.

"Students just parked wherever they wanted to," Beisel said. "They made it worse for themselves."

Two other lots exist in addition to the Technical Center parking lot, providing a total of 650 parking spaces at the campus.

The Technical Center lot was closed to students at the beginning of the Fall Semester 1994 because of excessive student-parking violations, said Thomas Winter, acting campus executive officer of the Wilkes-Barre Campus. As a result, students now must park in the main parking lot.

Beisel said he has seen many empty spaces in the main parking lot. "I've heard stories that there is no parking, but that is just not true."

Winter said restrictions against student parking in the lot may be revised in the near future.

Wilkes-Barre Campus Student Government Association President Jason Getz and SGA Vice President Richel Perretti met with Winter in November to discuss a resolution to the problem with the lot, but a solution was not found.

Winter said he has not seen Wilkes-Barre SGA's recent recommendations for solving the problem, but is interested in the group's suggestions. However, he added that he does not plan to reopen the Technical Center parking lot to all students.

A number of possibilities for resolving this problem exist, Winter said, such as holding a lottery for a certain number of spaces or allowing students who have classes in the building closest to the parking lot to park there.

Getz said a preliminary proposal has been suggested within SGA to hold the lottery for parking in the Technical Center lot. The group will meet soon to vote on the idea and, if approved, a meeting will be scheduled with Winter to discuss it, he said.

"I think now we may be heading to some sort of compromise," Winter said. "We hope to resolve it within the week."

Even though ample parking is available in the main parking lot at the Wilkes-Barre Campus, Getz said, SGA became involved in trying to reopen student access to the lot because the decision to close the Technical Center lot was made without student involvement during the summer.

"It comes down to a principle," Getz said. "A decision of this magnitude needs student involvement."

But Wilkes-Barre Campus is not the only campus with parking problems. At some campuses, such as Penn State Great Valley, a lack of parking exists.

Currently, Penn State Great Valley is using the parking lot of a local bank to combat an overflow of cars. A shuttle bus provides transportation from the parking lot to campus.

Joseph Dunn, director of business and finance services at Penn State Great Valley, said the lack of parking has been a problem for some time. The campus has 350 spaces, but around 60 to 70 cars must park in the bank's parking lot because of limited space.

The campus has purchased land to build an additional 150 parking spaces, Dunn said. A contract is scheduled to be signed around Feb. 15, he said, and construction of the lot should begin sometime around March 15.

When the new parking addition is built, the lighting of the parking area will also be upgraded, he added.

"We have bought the land and we've been going through the approval process," Dunn said. "We have been working as diligently as we can."

The Altoona Campus has 239 staff parking spaces, 843 student spaces and nine handicapped parking spaces, said Bob Archey, chief of police services at the campus. Visitors may park in staff parking spaces, he said.

Neither students nor staff members are required to pay for parking, Archey said. Student tuition includes the cost of parking, he said.

The parking lots at the campus are well lit, Archey said, and brighter sodium-vapor lights were installed in all lots a few years ago.

An added safety feature is the presence of surveillance cameras in the dorm parking lot. Archey said the time-lapse cameras run from dusk to dawn.

At the beginning of the Fall Semester, students may occasionally have difficulty finding parking spaces when they arrive, Archey said. Additional officers are assigned to direct students to available spaces, he said.

This problem did not occur this year, Archey said.

Because only 600 students live on the AltoonaCampus, students do not have a problem finding parking spaces on campus, Archey said. The rest of the students are commuter students, he said, and have classes at different times of the day.

John Cooney, campus executive officer of the Allentown Campus, said the campus has no parking problems. All campus students are commuter students, he said.

"I would say we have adequate parking," he said.

The Allentown Campus has 350 parking spaces located in a large parking lot with six interconnecting sections, Cooney said. The parking lot is lit 24 hours a day, he said.