The start of a new year and a new semester brings not only changes in classes, but also changes in lifestyles, attitudes and appearances.

As the ball dropped at midnight at Times Square in New York City, a sense of new chances ushered in the year of 2018. Resolutions are being made to improve individual lives.

Filled with the hope of a successful 2018, I compiled a wish list of New Year resolutions I hope FGCU will take on to improve the university.

As a student at FGCU, the new semester brings add drop week, busy parking ga- rages and stressed out students. One of the worst parts about arriving to school every day is driving in parking garages where students are going 35 miles per hour and playing a game of metaphorical bumper cars to fight for the two parking spaces that are left.

According to University Marketing and Communications, FGCU has a student population of 14,846 while only 4,748 students reside on campus.

This means around 68 percent of the student body commutes to school – and has to park on campus.

According to Parking Services, there are over 5,000 parking spaces on campus, which seems like not enough with over 10,000 commuter students, faculty and staff.

In my experience, if you arrive to school any later than 9:30 a.m., finding a parking spot is like pulling teeth – and you can forget about even getting into Parking Garage Four.

So it is one of my biggest wishes for FGCU to build another parking garage, or just do anything really, to make the parking situation even a little better.

There is also some room for improvement with the dirt parking lot that blows dust across campus as people drive on it. Although the school, along with programs, clubs and facilities, are growing rapidly, there seems to be a lack of efficient and strategic marketing of those programs and facilities. This leaves them underused, because, in some cases, students don’t know they exist.

In 2018 the school and its various programs and facilities like Student Health Services should spend more time and funds on marketing their existence.

In addition to that, the start of a new semester means more new classes and even more new books.

The FGCU bookstore is well equipped with merchandise ranging from gummy bears to laptops and Harry Styles records.

Yet, much like the parking garage situation, there is always a long line of mayhem in the bookstore as students rush to get the materials for classes. I’ve only ever seen two people manning the counter designated for online book pick-up, while there is a line of 50 people.

In 2018, the bookstore should make it a resolution to be better equipped for the influx of students who need books in order to cut down the line and the chaos throughout the entire store.