On-campus parking fills up quickly

Many students could not apply for parking spots for next year after failed registration service and spots filling in less than a minute.

Randy Young, Department of Public Safety spokesman, said roughly 8,000 students applied for 400 permits, which were sold out less than one minute after online applications became available.

“There was a period of time spanning several minutes when the registration was not available,” Young said.

UNC junior Ilyasah Shabazz submitted the application for a permit July 11 at 9 a.m., when registration opened.

She said she hit the submit button but received a “service unavailable” notification.

“I had two computers ready to go, and I knew my 90 words per minute typing rate was going to get me a parking pass this year,” she said.
Shabazz did not get a parking spot for her sophomore year either. They were all sold out at 9:02 a.m., she said.

“I immediately hit Twitter and texted some of my friends and saw that they had the same problem,” she said.

Shabazz applied for a spot in the K Lot — located near Ehringhaus and Koury residence halls, which costs $315.75 per year.

The price of parking permits for this academic year ranges from $238.50 to $414.75.

Shabazz went to DPS the morning of her failed registration, but said they did not blame a system crash.

“They didn’t believe that the system was down, but rather that the passes were just sold out, and I was too late.”

The DPS parking information website says that most permits for all students sell out within minutes.

Some students who were unable to get spots on July 11, said they’ll apply for hardship parking.

“Hardship parking is an option for students in need of a parking space for medical, family, academic, extracurricular or work reasons,” Connor Brady, chair of the hardship parking committee, said.

Shabazz said she plans to use the bus system to get to her internship in Carrboro.

“I’ll be staying in (Hinton James) for the upcoming academic year and need parking for my internship and job, but I’m not too worried because I know that hardship is an option. But it isn’t guaranteed.”
Applications for hardship parking are due Aug. 22 and will be reviewed by two hardship parking committee members before being submitted to the full committee for approval.

Hardship parking committee members are appointed by student government.

The allocated parking spots will be available Aug. 31.

The number of spots available for hardship parking varies each year based on the number of permits that DPS allocates and the number of students that apply.

“There is no difference in price between a permit purchased through the regular process or received through the hardship process,” Brady said.

The committee’s decisions on hardship parking applications will be presented to Student Body President Will Leimenstoll for public review Sept. 7.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.