On a typical weekday, Jamie Yee gets up at 6 a.m. and commutes from South Sacramento to arrive on campus just after daybreak. She slides into a parking spot, armed with a pillow and comforter, and catches up on sleep until her 9 a.m. class.

All this, she says, so she can park closer to campus.

“It sometimes gets a little cold at 7 a.m.,” said Yee, a junior majoring in child development. “That?s why I keep the comforter in my car.”

Like many students at Sacramento State, Yee said she would rather get to school early than battle it out for parking at the 8:30 a.m. rush. Trying to find a parking spot at 8:30 a.m. is difficult enough, but trying to find one at 10 minutes to 10 on a Wednesday morning is now comparable to guerilla warfare.

The result is a new breed of students at Sac State. They screech tires, back up at insane speeds or lurk around corners. They are armed with compact cars and a gaze like a predator, watching you walk, waiting to nab that vacant spot the minute an exiting student even looks as if they are going to reach for car keys. Above all, they are frustrated.

In this war there are victims. Jamie Alexander, a junior, had someone get out of a car and yell at her for taking a parking place first. Alexander said she thought the lady was going to attack her so she rolled up her window and stayed in her car until the lady finally walked away and got back into her car.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. One student, who wishes to remain anonymous, solves his parking dilemma by removing his license plate before parking illegally in order to get to class on time.

For those willing to chance parking in the structure without an armored tank, the problem seems to be that parking spaces are too small. Both Yee and Alexander have seen cars get side swiped in the parking structure.

“I never park at the corner in the structure,” Yee said. “I avoid compact spaces at all costs.”

If you think parking isn?t bad at Sac State, ask a student who parks in the dilapidated strip of potholes and mud known as the overflow lot off State University Drive South.

For Freshman Tiffany Rodriguez, it takes about 20 minutes to walk from her car to class when she parks in the overflow lot.

The situation has improved some with the onlsaught of winter; students who previously took 20 minutes to walk to overflow parking are now sprinting through the rain in record time and getting to their cars in less than 10 minutes.

Senior Troy Hutchens can sum up the situation in two words.

“Parking sucks,” Hutchens said after finishing the trek to his car in the overflow lot.

Parking authorities advise other strategies to combat the problem of parking on campus.

“I?d like to see more students use Regional Transit, which is free to Sacramento State students,” said Ed Mundez from the Parking Enforcement Team.

Regional Transit covers a wide radius around Sacramento with park-and-ride areas for light rail off Mather Field Road, Arden, Del Paso and Watt and Interstate 80. Bus service extends to Elk Grove, as well as the downtown and Natomas areas.

The transit system runs Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., but has a limited schedule on the weekends.

The Hornet Express Shuttle has several routes and runs Monday through Friday from 6:50 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. The shuttle is free to students with a current OneCard.

The Rideshare Express Service is another alternative to the parking problem on campus. This service claims to be able to provide students with a customized match-list for ridesharing within days of the time the application is taken. There are student carpool parking areas designated in the parking structure and in Lot 2 at the north end of the campus.

More information and schedules can be obtained from Parking Services, located in Foley Hall near the dorms, or by calling 278-7275 or visiting www.csus.edu/utaps.