By Ashlyn Searcy
Dixie State University intramurals are all fun and games until someone’s car is dented.
Games at the softball field, located directed between the Burns Arena and Vintage at Canyonlands (off-campus housing), have caused some serious damage. The field is surrounded by areas to park for both Canyonlands residents and DSU students. When home runs are hit, those cars are at risk for damage.
Karley Stanley, a freshman in the Physical Therapy Assistant program from Santaquin, currently lives at Canyonlands and parks her car in that dangerous zone multiple times a day.
“It’s hard because If I don’t want to risk (parking there) I have to park at the opposite end of the street I live on and then walk about two blocks home,” Stanley said. “My neighbor took a softball to his windshield while driving down that same street, and I cannot afford that right now. I don’t think I will park there anymore, or at least until softball season is over.”
Stanley, like many students, have noticed the concern but haven’t taken legitimate steps to discover what is to be done if their vehicle fell victim to damage to a home run.
“That serious vehicular damage is being taken care of on a personal level,” Director of Intramurals David Howell said.
Signs have been placed in the Burns Arena parking lot that explain parking is done at the drivers’ risk of being hit by softballs to eliminate DSU having responsibility of any property damage. The street between the softball field and Vintage at Canyonlands is not a liability for the university and does not have any notice.
Vintage at Canyonlands has not made any official statement in relation to the home run hits. First, because no high-flying softballs have done damage on the property, just their residents and in the street outside of its parking lot. Second, because the complex management has posted that it is not liable for any property damage that happens in its parking lot.
Karyn Johnson, a member of Vintage at Canyonlands management, reiterated the original statement about parking both in the given lot and on the street.
“This information is posted at the entrance at their parking lot and has been the entire time we have been in business,” Johnson said.
Students should be aware that parking in said areas is risking property damage that will not be reimbursed by the University nor Canyonlands; but the potential damage should not affect DSU’s students from deciding to participate in intramurals.