Parking Changes Ahead for Fall Semester

The Pavilion Parking Garage will be available this summer as a free trial for UM faculty and staff. Photo by Innovative Construction Management.

The Pavilion Parking Garage will be available this summer as a free trial for UM faculty and staff. Photo by Innovative Construction Management.

The University of Mississippi is growing, and parking areas are changing to accommodate that growth. As a result, the number of parking permits available will increase slightly this year.

“The increase will help us continue our parking lot maintenance and new lot construction,” said Mike Harris, director of parking and transportation. “It will also help with the garage, along with increase costs associated with transportation.”

Here are the changes ahead for the 2015 fall semester:

Faculty and Staff

– Parking Permits

Faculty-staff parking permits will be available for purchase July 22 and will cost $160 for the year. Reserved spaces for faculty-staff will cost $750.

– Pavilion Garage

The Pavilion parking garage will open soon with 350 spaces reserved for faculty and staff. A garage permit will cost $550 and guarantees the holder a space. Faculty and staff can experience a free trial period this summer at the garage by contacting parking@olemiss.edu. The garage will have additional parking spaces for visitors, who will pay upon exit. The cost for visitor parking in the garage will be $2 for the first hour and $1 for each additional hour, not exceeding $10 in a 24-hour period.

– Rebel Drive

As Rebel Drive is extended to Fraternity Drive, the Data Center faculty-staff lot will gain about 80 parking spaces. The parallel parking spaces along Rebel Drive will be eliminated to improve bus routes and allow for a pull-over area for buses, with the possibility of sidewalks and bike lanes to be added later. Even with the elimination of those spaces, faculty-staff spaces will still have a net gain as the Data Center lot is expanded.

– Tad Smith Coliseum Lot

The Tad Smith Coliseum lot will remain a faculty-staff parking area until the Pavilion is completed. Upon completion of the arena, the spaces near the Turner Center will become faculty-staff parking once again, which will, in turn, allow the Tad Smith lot to return to a commuter lot.

 

Students

This year, all students will be able to purchase their parking permit by date, based on their classification, on a first-come, first-served basis. The cost of the permits varies. Here are the release dates:

– Commuters

Cost: Main campus, $150; Park-and-Ride, $75

July 10 – Seniors and graduate students (90 or more credit hours completed)

July 13 – Juniors (60-89 hours completed)

July 14 – Sophomores (30-59 hours completed)

July 15 – Freshmen (0-29 hours completed)

Commuter permits are limited and once all main campus permits are sold, students will have the option to purchase a park-and-ride permit.

Commuter park-and-ride permit holders will be able to park at the Jackson Avenue Center or the South Lot at the corner of Highway 6 and Old Taylor Road to get to campus.

– Residents

Cost: $200

July 16 – Residential West (Kincannon, Pittman, Burns and Minor halls)

July 17 – Residential Central (Brown, Crosby, Deaton, Hefley, Stewart, Martin and Stockard halls, and Alpha Omicron Pi, Chi Omega, Kappa Alpha Theta, Pi Beta Phi and Alpha Delta Pi)

July 20 – Residential East (Residential College South, Residential College North, Residential Hall No. 1, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Kappa Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Phi Mu)

July 21 – Residential South (formerly Fraternity Parking and Village) and Campus Walk (Alpha Tau Omega, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Psi, Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Tau, Pi Kappa Alpha, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, Sigma Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Village, Campus Walk)

– Overflow (Residential park-and-ride)

Cost: $100

All residential overflow will be located at the Whirlpool parking lot. The new bus system at Whirlpool (Silver Route) will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday with on-call service from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday through Thursday.

This is the same service offered at the Jackson Avenue Center lot, but residential overflow will move to Whirlpool to accommodate more vehicles. Additional lighting, cameras and on-site security will be added to the lot.

About 65 percent of students living on campus brought a vehicle this school year, Harris said. Due to limited parking, this displaced 310 residents to the park-and-ride lot at the JAC. As new residence halls open next year, an estimated 525 to 550 vehicles will be displaced. If student residents do not absolutely need a vehicle on campus, Harris recommends they utilize other transportation options on campus. These include Zipcar, Zimride, bicycles and various transit routes.

– Additions

The Kennon Observatory bus stop will be under construction this summer to transform it into a transit hub, providing a central campus drop-off spot for students and making the bus a better option. A new commuter parking lot will also be added near the track facility on Hill Drive that will open this fall.

 

Other Permit Costs

Daily Visitor – $3

Monthly Visitor – $45

Annual Visitor – $200

Satellite Residential – $100

Staff Low Option – $80

Vendor/Contractor – $135

Retiree – $60