By Audrey Valenzuela | Staff Writer
Baylor unveiled a new distribution system for student parking permits on July 30, allowing students to buy a parking permit on an assigned release date that coordinates with their classification. In addition, an extra verification step from DUO Mobile was added to ensure student permits actually went to students.
The Department of Parking and Transportation informed students that parking permits were only to be purchased on or after the assigned date until permits are sold out. This year’s system was set up to allocate parking permits more efficiently and user-friendly.
There are a total of five parking garages and four surface lots for students to choose from, with prices varying on lot and term agreement. According to Parking Logix, there are a total of 11,000 parking spots on campus and 16,000 students seeking parking passes for the 2024-2025 school year. Yet, students have expressed mixed reactions when approaching the online selection process.
Some students had trouble logging on to the new site to register for permits while others were ahead of the game and purchased a permit the night before their assigned date, according to Prosper junior Brooke Black.
“The junior slot was assigned for 9 a.m. Aug. 14, according to the email from DPS,” Black said. “I decided to check out the new website the night of Aug. 13 to familiarize myself with it, but slots were already open for juniors,” Black said. “I was able to purchase a Tuesday/Thursday permit for the Speight garage that night. However, when I logged in on my assigned date, it said all permits were sold out, aside from the free Ferrell [Center] parking.”
Although Black was successful in purchasing a permit, she said she found it troubling that all of the student passes were sold out on the morning of her assigned slot. She said the new distribution was straightforward, but it was difficult to navigate.
“The distribution was hard because I was only able to obtain a pass for two of the five days,” Black said. “I was expecting to jump through hoops with DUO, but it was easy and what I had expected from using it previously.”
Aside from slots being opened early, other students found the DUO step to cause technical difficulties, delaying the process of purchasing. This verification step is put in place to secure the site while preventing hacking and purchasing multiple permits at a time, but it caused more concern than expected.
Ladera Ranch, Calif. junior Collin Chen said he didn’t have to go through DUO at all in his process.
“I had to log in a couple of times before reviewing the available permits, but I never had to pass through the DUO authorization,” Chen said. “I know others found DUO to be an annoying step but seeing that it didn’t show up for me, it was fairly easy to view the available spots.”
Chen also said he would be starting a campus job and finding parking available for him was a concern. He hopes to see parking permits specifically for students working on campus to be certain he won’t receive parking tickets or be towed.
