SEMO attempts to make parking simpler with a new system

SEMO announced that they are updating the parking policy for the next academic year on July 8.

According to the notification sent to all SEMO students, the new parking system reduces the number of parking categories from six to three.

In past years, students were required to enter a parking lottery to get passes to their ideal parking locations. The pass would grant them access to one or two of several lots around campus.

The parking passes were divided into three main categories: resident, commuter and staff, and then further split into subcategories of various preferred and perimeter lots. The new system will eliminate the parking lottery and subcategories of parking lots and focus solely on whether the driver is a resident, commuter or staff member to determine where they can park.

Former Human Resources Director Alyssa Davis, who was temporarily overseeing the Department of Public Safety (DPS), said the new system will streamline the parking model and make it easier for students.

“We were trying to reduce the number of categories to three levels… So there will be residential lots, commuter lots for commuter students, and then employee parking. So it's eliminating all the layers. So what it's also doing is giving students, in particular, more access to parking throughout campus. So, for example, if you're a residential student, you can park in any resident lot, no matter where it's at all over campus,” Davis said.

Director of Residence Life Kendra Skinner explained that the lots for residential students are by residential buildings, and the lots for commuters are closer to academic buildings.

“Any lot near a residential area typically would have been considered a residential lot... And so the lots that you might see near academic buildings, like around Dempster, Scully, Parker and those areas there, would be more commuter lots,” Skinner said.

Additionally, the cost of parking has changed. In previous years, the cost was $140 or $190, depending on whether the pass was for preferred or perimeter parking. According to SEMO’s website, the new parking passes are $180 if purchased in the fall semester and $150 if bought in the spring.

With more options for parking than previous semester, parking tickets may become less of a commonality for students.

Skinner hopes that students will find this system simpler and get ticketed less often than in previous semesters.

“Obviously, you know, I think part of the reason that students get the tickets is because they are unfamiliar with what lot they should be in, or because they don't find the lots currently convenient for them. And so I think a student's ability to park potentially in a lot that they might otherwise have had to pass because they had to park in perimeter parking or something like that before. I think, and hope, that we may see a little less ticketing for students, kind of in those for those reasons,” Skinner said.

While Skinner is optimistic about the new parking policy change, she believes SEMO may change it again after the 2024-2025 academic year if the new system receives a bad reception from the students.

"I think for sure this was one of the things that, when we talked about it that we thought would make good sense in terms of the change. But I think we also want to see what happens this year. Did it create more confusion that we weren't anticipating? Were there some things that we didn't take into consideration with how students are moving around campus? I wouldn't be surprised if, after the first year, there may be some tweaks to it. I wouldn't expect it to completely change back to the old way unless it just really didn't work at all, and we didn't see a way to kind of to make any improvements to it.” Skinner said.