Auny Murphy wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to get to work; her shift starts at 7:00, but she likes to arrive 15 minutes before, making sure everything is set up. She drags out a collapsable blue and white sign that sits at the entrance of the Point Loma Nazarene University’s commuter lot, advertising complimentary valet parking. After placing small cones in a few spots, she has about an hour and a half to herself before the spaces grow sparse and her morning really starts.
Each day, hundreds of cars filled with students, faculty and staff enter PLNU’s campus, many with the goal of securing a parking spot a reasonable distance from their destination. But on a campus with limited space and no room to expand, the growing number of commuters causes a conundrum. In 2016, the university hired ACE parking to provide an immediate solution, Kaz Trypuc, assistant director of public safety, said.
“Bringing in ACE to provide stacked parking was something that we could do almost overnight and increase our number of available parking spaces by 100 or more,” Trypuc said.
Murphy, an ACE parking employee and a captain at the PLNU location, has worked with ACE at the university for three years. You may find her running back and forth on the lower level of the commuter lot, her hair with multiple colors of faded dye sometimes hidden beneath a beanie. Her voice echoes throughout the structure, as she runs back and forth calling out to coworkers and greeting those she knows. When you meet her eyes, usually you’ll find a smile creep across her face, revealing a smiley piercing tucked beneath her top lip, the name of its placement is fitting for her disposition.
“I don’t think there are really any challenging days here; I actually really enjoy coming to work,” said Murphy.
However, it can get a bit hectic on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as the chapel crowd rolls in. This semester, she said, has brought more students coming through the garage than previous years.
Usually, around 10 to 10:30 a.m. the garage is full, Murphy said, and they have to start turning people away.
“We do get attitudes, but at this point in my life it doesn’t faze me anymore,” Murphy said. “A lot of times, it will be the students who live on campus because they are mad that they can’t park here, and I’m pretty sure they’ve been told that, but they’ll cuss or get an attitude. Sometimes they just get really angry.”
“I don’t think they realize how it’s a lot, it’s like playing tetris a lot of times,” Murphy said. “And when we get a car that just wants to park wherever it kind of throws things off. They don’t really understand how stressful it is, especially when you’re trying to stack, because you can hit a car, like that’s what we’re here for.”
A car pulls up to the valet stand as the window rolls down. Murphy greets the driver by name, and lets him know that there is parking open at the end as he drives away waving out the window.
As for the amount of faces Murphy recognizes, “The majority,” she said, “to me it makes it seem more memorable when people say your name and know you – it makes you feel good when people remember you.”
“Now they’re starting to talk to us more,” Janet Zurita, the manager for PLNU’s ACE parking location, said. “Back when I first started it was a little bit, not a lot of people would talk to us. But now they see more familiar faces coming every semester – at least [Murphy] and I have been here for the last three years, so I think everybody has gotten like, ‘Oh, they take care of us,’ so I think more people do talk to us.”
For Murphy, getting to know the people behind the wheel is exciting.
“They’re funny,” Murphy said, as a contagious smile grew across her face and she began to laugh as if remembering a joke, “The students are really funny.”
“People are really interesting,” she said. “There’s quite a few students I’ve talked to and found out what they do outside of school – like one of them, he plays hockey and he invited me to his game. I didn’t get a chance to go but it feels good getting invited to like graduations or extracurricular activities.”
On the table behind the valet booth, there lay a checked out library book titled “Fairest of them All,” the first installment of Serena Valentino’s Disney Villains series. The book is Murphy’s, a die-hard Disney fan. Zurita mentions the book on the table, noting that she forgot her newest one, it’s by her favorite author Colleen Hoover.
“We’re really both outgoing, so I think that’s why we click,” Zurita said, speaking of Murphy. “If I know she’s not having a great day, I step up and that’s kind of what we do.”
“Some days I’m not here, I manage three properties, and every week I try to go see each of them. If I’m not here, with [Murphy], I don’t have to worry about anything. It’s become more of work friends too, honestly, she’s awesome and she’s not allowed to leave me,” Zurita said, as she hollered over to Murphy, “Right? You’re not allowed to leave me.”
As her expression widened to a grin, her eyes squinting through laughter, Murphy replied, “Yep, I guess I’m stuck.”
