In response to concerns raised largely by NIU’s commuter students, Campus Parking Services has made adjustments to improve access to parking and increase the number of permit parking spaces available in on-campus lots.
“Within days of receiving student feedback about campus parking, our parking services office undertook a study and made recommendations to provide more spaces for commuter students,” says Steven Cunningham, acting vice president of business and finance, whose office oversees campus parking. “I am pleased to say that the result is about 300 new commuter parking spots available since the start of classes.”
On Friday, Sept. 13, lots K and L on the west campus near Huskie Stadium and the Northern Television Center were turned over to the university and are now open. These lots contain a combination of 325 faculty and staff (blue), residence hall student (orange), reduced rate student (brown) and commuter student (yellow) spaces. Access to these connected lots is available from West Lincoln Highway to the south and Stadium Drive East to the north.
In addition to lots K and L coming online, the recently resurfaced lots adjacent to Anderson Hall on the east side of campus were reconfigured to add more commuter (yellow) spaces. Lot 40 was changed from blue employee permit parking to yellow–with 54 blue spaces relocated to lot A–resulting in 73 new spaces for commuter students. Lot 9 was also changed from blue to yellow, adding an additional 28 commuter parking spaces. Reserved spaces for those living in Gilbert Hall were moved from yellow lot E to blue lot 2, yielding another 16 additional yellow commuter spaces.
Additionally, work is being done to add approximately 15-20 commuter spaces in lots A and B, with work expected to be completed this week.
“The university has tried to act quickly in response to student parking concerns,” adds Scott Kangas, director of Campus Parking and Transportation Services. “We are also looking at technologies we can employ in the future to assist motorists in finding available parking on campus and hope to have some recommendations soon.”
