UNK officials have changed the rules for residence parking for the 2024-25 academic year. The changes include new “priority” parking permits for residents, along with a $100 price increase.
Ted Eichholz, assistant director of the UNK Police Department, said the change was a collaboration between multiple departments within the university.
“We’re always trying to improve,” Eichholz said. “This is just a combination between business and finance, Student Affairs and university police. We did present it to the Residence Hall Association and to student government before implementing it.”
Residence parking, which was previously $139 for each permit, will now be split into two priority permit zones. The priority permits, listed as R1 and R2, now cost $239. R1 includes lots 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 28, which includes parking for the Centennial Towers East and West, Antelope Hall and Nestor Hall. R2 includes lots 11 and 12, which includes parking for Mantor and Randall Hall.
There is also a third residence permit option, R3, which is $40 and includes lots 14, 15 and 16, and provides parking for the areas around University Residence North and South.
As of Aug. 15, the R1 and R2 permits, including both full-year and semester permits, were sold out. Because the UNK Police Department did not oversell permits for this school year, the permits were capped at 502 for R1 parking, and roughly 308 for R2 parking.
R3 permits are still available for purchase on UNK MyBlue accounts, as there is no limit to how many of those permits can be sold.
One of the main changes is that the UNK Police Department will no longer oversell permits. Previously, there was about a 10% oversell on permits, which will equal about 100 less permits being sold compared to last year.
These changes, along with 24/7 enforcement of the residence parking zones, were implemented to help the congestion of the lots.
“In theory, if you buy an R1 permit or an R2 permit, you will always have a parking spot,” Eichholz said. “With that, we’re also going to start enforcing the R1 and R2 residential areas 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The UNK Police Department also collaborated with Student Affairs to develop the new plan.
George Holman, the associate vice chancellor of Student Affairs, said the plan was presented to different student associations before its approval.
“We did a specific satisfaction survey with students, and parking was a theme in there,” Holman said. “This year we went to RHA, Residence Hall Association, and presented a plan to them and they seemed to be on board, and SGA also seemed to be on board with the changes, so we went forward with it.”
However, it is not clear if enough has been done to make sure the student body is aware of the changes to the parking permits.
Sam Schroeder, the UNK student body president, said he hopes increased communication with the student body will help students better understand parking and avoid tickets.
“Right now, the only people I know that have heard about the new parking plan are people in RHA, student government and then anybody those people told,” Schroeder said. “And that’s not enough, so we need everybody to be aware of it and save people from getting parking tickets.”
Avery Laing, a sophomore at UNK, said she decided against purchasing a priority permit.
“I would say at this point, I’m not going to buy a parking permit,” Laing said. “Parking may seem like a small thing to the university that put this in place, but to the students, 240 bucks isn’t something we can just toss around for a parking permit.”
Students still hoping to purchase an R1 or R2 permit can join a waitlist through their UNK MyBlue accounts.
