Starting May 2, Parking Services will change their hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m, with the aim of increasing efficiency and convenience. Assistant Police Officer Donnell Tanksley said the new change in hours is to align with other campus operating times. Parking Services is the only building on campus open at that time in the morning. “There’s no efficiency of opening at 7:15 a.m. when no one is on campus,” Tanskley said. Ronni Olson, operations supervisor at Parking Services, said he is glad for the change. “7:15 a.m. is early. This way, it will mimic what everyone else does on campus,” Olson said. Aside from the change in hours, several other changes have already taken place on campus, Tanksley said. Among those, online payment for parking is imminent. Parking Services has revamped the portal website online, which students and faculty can access to renew their permit or pay off a citation. This new feature makes handling parking matters much less strenuous and time-consuming, Tanksley said. There will also be a new installment of pay stations all over campus. Seven out of 10 of the new additions will be solar-powered. Some of the pay stations are already functional on campus. The main reason for the surplus in pay stations is to educate campus on how to handle their parking payments if they are not near Parking Services in south campus, Tanksley said. “The goal is to make it more efficient and user-friendly for students, faculty, and visitors,” Olson said. Likewise, a pay by cellphone mobile application will prospectively be available by the end of summer, Olson said. “If you’re in class and you’re parked and you [realize you] need [the parking spot] an hour longer than you thought, you can extend that by your phone,” Olson said. Additionally, the C lot and Lincoln Creek Park and Ride are in store for long-awaited adjustments. Parking Services hope to repave the parking grounds of on-campus lots, Tanksley said. “Even before I got here, there’s been a lot of stakeholders in planning the parking-management process. This has been going on for some years,” Tanksley said. “It costs a lot of money but I think the campus community will definitely appreciate the lots being paved.”
