With the removal of the preferred commuter parking lot by Grauel Building and high demand for spaces in preferred parking lot B in front of Dempster Hall, there has been negative feedback on the state of parking at Southeast Missouri State University. Parking Services, however, assures there is plenty of spaces for all students with a permit.

"There is plenty of parking on campus it just is not at the door of the building," Frannie Helton, data entry specialist for Parking Services, said.

Helton has worked with Parking Services at Southeast for 30 years alongside the interim director of the Department of Public Safety, Beth Glaus, who has been working there for 29 years.

The parking lottery opens in July for all students. People can sign up for permits by either signing into the portal and registering or calling in to Parking Services. Once registered, each student is given a computer-generated number that allows the system to place cars in different lots.

"The deficiency in parking registry is people not participating in July," Glaus said. "As a reminder, after that Fourth of July bang, students should be checking the portal to enroll in the lottery."

There are seven different groups of parking for students to choose from, separated by whether the student is a campus resident or commuter, and which academic building they use the most.

Every semester, 55 percent of each permit goes to seniors, 30 percent to juniors and 15 percent to sophomores. From those numbers, the computer randomly assigns the permits.

Several instances of parking disapproval have been due to the removal of the preferred parking lot by Grauel Building. In order to remedy the situation, Parking Services offered a mid-range decal that is not exactly preferred, but is not as far as perimeter. The parking pass was offered at a cheaper price.

That mid-range lot is still to be filled.

Higher enrollment has played a role in filling up the parking lots around campus. The 10.6 percent rise in first-year student enrollment has led to 816 more permits sold this year.

Parking Services workers walk around campus and count open spaces from the first day of school until Thanksgiving break to determine if any more parking permits can be given out.

"You can guarantee that if I contact 30 people from the waiting list I will only hear from 15," Helton said. "We start with seniors then work our way down."

Unlike the lottery, the waiting list is organized by seniority. However, there are two different types of waiting lists. One is for the people who registered for parking through the lottery, and the other is for those who registered after the lottery was closed. Some seniors may not receive parking passes before sophomores if they did not properly register in July.

For students in perimeter parking who cannot find a parking space, there is an overflow parking lot behind the Student Recreation Center-North.

"Parking usually takes about three weeks to settle down," said Glaus.

Currently, Parking Services has issued about 1.5 permits per space in commuter parking lots and is in the process of handing out more.