Starting Fall 2014, students can pay for parking permits with financial aid. This is just one change Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) made for next year. PTS is also changing the cost of daily, stolen, and lost permits and color-coding lots to avoid confusion.

George Androuin, the director of Business and Parking Services, said they plan to move the ticket appeal process completely online. He also said students who change their mind after buying an annual permit will be able to exchange it for a semester permit and some money back. To buy permits with financial aid, students can select a new payment option titled “add to MyWings account.” “The problem we were having in the past was that students on financial aid couldn’t afford to buy the permit for those first couple weeks of classes and were paying $3 to park on campus so they wouldn’t get a citation.”

PTS will be color-coding Premium and Discount lots blue and gray, respectively. Androuin said this would simplify things for new students and visitors confused about which lots their permits apply to. This means permits will be labelled ‘Blue’ or ‘Gray.’ “This just makes it a whole lot easier for us to describe to people where to park on campus.” Instead of having the standard $3 daily parking pass, PTS will offer $3 passes in gray lots and $5 passes along the entrances to campus. This is to give people an incentive to use the discount lots because the space in the core of campus is limited.

The new cost for stolen permits will be $5 after a UPD report has been submitted. Lost permits must be reported to PTS and are replaceable for $20 with a receipt of the report. Annual permits can now be exchanged for term permits of like value during the Fall semester. This way, if a student purchased an annual and then realizes they will not be here for Spring, they can exchange their permit and get some of their money back.

Students who use temporary permits to park a secondary vehicle on campus or to replace a stolen permit, will now be limited to six a semester.

To appeal tickets, students used to have to submit a Notice of Appeal in person or online and then appear before the appeals board in person. The new process will be online and designed so the first appeal will be heard by a non-enforcement member of parking services. With this system, in-person hearings will only be required if the first appeal is denied and re-appealed.

Androuin also mentioned the new parking garage that will be open by January 1, 2015. He said the first three floors will be for housing and the fourth floor will be for premium parking. “That will alleviate a huge parking issue that housing students have been experiencing the past few years.”

Kasim Jawhar, mechanical engineering sophomore, said the changes sound like they’ll make parking easier. He said he thinks the new garage is a good idea. Demetrius Jenkins, an art history senior, said anything thats going to give students better options for parking is good. He said the additional garage is great because it gets rid or traffic, and he didn’t really understand why there wasn’t already a garage for housing parking.

Email Tiffany Felts at reporter11@unfspinnaker.com