The Green Spine parking lot, which is  located behind the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar building, opened up this morning for faculty and staff to park.

This parking area has been closed off from August for the construction of the People Mover System, a network of trams that will connect the various facilities within Education City, but was accessible to pedestrians for the last two days when barriers around this parking area were removed.

“The car park has been opened for use by campus faculty and staff only. The restrictions on student parking will continue on campus because work on the roads and infrastructure services will continue,” said an email sent out to Northwestern University in Qatar’s students by Ray Corcoran, director of facilities management at NU-Q.

Students who parked their cars at the Green Spine on Tuesday morning before they were informed of the restrictions, were disappointed to learn that they won’t be able to do so in future.

“First the Student Center and now the Green Spine?” said Mounir Sheikh, freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. “Qatar Foundation fails to understand the very limited parking spaces in the Ceremonial Court and the unreliable shuttle service from the convention center.”

Hamza Alony, a journalism student at NU-Q, said he doesn’t understand why the Green Spine parking is not for students, considering the faculty and staff members already have Student Center and underground parking lots for their use.

“The parking lot was big enough for both students and staff in the past. I don’t see why things would be different now,” said Alony.

The opening of Green Spine has allowed students to walk through the parking lot instead of taking a bus to travel from one side of the campus to another. Students, especially those living in the new residential halls, welcomed this option.

“Since I work in the Student Center, it’s really far and it’s difficult to take a bus there,” said Asma Ul-Hosna, a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and an on-campus resident. “Now, I can easily walk since the weather is pleasant these days.”