Southeast has implemented a new parking permit program this year.
Beginning with the fall semester, all students parking on campus must display the new parking permit on their car’s windshield.
The new parking permit is a window cling decal with a barcode instead of the former hanging tag displayed from the rearview mirror post.
“It’s easier to scan the permit if it’s on the glass as opposed to hanging,” said Michael McNeal, IUS Police office services assistant.
Monica Wise, interim chief of police, said the new parking permit will eliminate the possibility of mistakes when officers are writing tickets.
“Any time you do hand-data entry, people make mistakes,” she said. “You can have human error.”
McNeal said eliminating human error is a major benefit, and the accuracy of the new system begins with the sale of the permit and continues with any actions taken regarding that permit.
“We scan the permit so we know we sold that person the correct permit. We scan the permit so we know we’re writing the ticket to that permit. And when the ticket prints out, there’s a barcode on it, so, when they pay the ticket, we scan it. That gets rid of the possibility of applying the payment to the wrong ticket,” he said.
In addition to eliminating processing errors, the new permit should be easier for students to use.
“A lot of cars these days have extra things in the rear-view mirror,” McNeal said, “like a map light, compass, auto-dimming or GPS, so the place to hang was too thick for the [previous] permit.
“We’ve been getting more and more complaints about that. And some peoples’ mirrors fall off or they cover their mirrors with Hawaiian leis, fuzzy dice or Mardi Gras beads. So this also solves that issue.”
Wise said some students are concerned that the decal is permanent, but said the cling decal can be transferred about 2,000 times before it wears out. The decal can be easily moved if students drive different vehicles.
McNeal said the new parking permit program did not add any additional costs to the student parking fee.
The student parking fee covers parking lot maintenance, including paving, paint, lights and signage.
The software program that supports the parking permits is called T2 Flex. This is the same system IU Bloomington and IUPUI have been using for at least 10 years.
“They have web interfaces where they sell the permits online, everything is done online,” McNeal said. “We don’t have that yet.”
McNeal said IU Southeast does not have a firm timeline for when the system will be implemented to that degree, but it is a goal.
“We’ve got the back end database to be able to support that but it’s a future enhancement,” he said.
Instructions for affixing the new permit were handed out or mailed to students along with the permits.
By DARIENNE ARCURI
Editor
darcuri@ius.edu
