The university’s parking service and shuttle service have merged together to form what is now known as Transportation Services.
Transportation Services was formed to help create more services for students. It began in September by Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Eric Summers to solve some of the parking issues that arose at the beginning of the Fall semester.
According to Director of Lion Traxx Shuttle Servic Gary Prescotte, one of the services that have been provided to students is that 280 parking spots have been rezoned.
“Out of that 280 spots that were rezoned, roughly about 180 went to upper class, 87 were rezoned for freshmen at university sections 7 and 5, and 15 spots have been added to faculty and staff,” said Prescott.
Since the formation of Transportation Services, four new ticket writers have been added to the staff, which gives those students the ability to obtain on campus work and help ensure that all parking rules and regulations are being followed.
“We strongly encourage the students to park within their correct parking zone and have a valid hang tag which is correctly displayed from the rear view mirror while parked on campus,” said Prescott.
The parking office is also offering temporary hang tags for when students forget to bring their hang tags.
Prescott says the office is also continuing their “Park Smart” initiative, which is a communication campaign that helps educate students about parking updates and changes and encourages them to park correctly. Updates are sent through social media and email communication.
“The ‘Park Smart’ initiative has been very effective,” said Prescott.
One of the things included in the initiative is an incentive-based rewards program for parking correctly where random students receive rewards for parking correctly.
The rewards have been snack items from local campus convenience and dining locations that have all been donated by Dining Services and Auxiliary Services.
On Oct. 2, Kristian Burns received the golden ticket to park in Summers’ parking spot for one day.
Prescott says that they plan to keep the students guessing when it comes to who receives the golden ticket.
“It may happen again,” said Prescott. “It may happen tomorrow. We’re just encouraging students to park correctly and they never know if they might come to their car and find a special prize.”
Prescott also says that they look forward to adding another service in their operations by the start of November called “Jump Start.”
The service will allow the university’s parking attendants and ticket writers to have the ability to start a car with a dead battery.
“I think it’s a very good thing for students, well mainly the university,” said Prescott. “Because it will allow the department to offer some services to the students that they didn’t once have or that they didn’t have before. I would encourage our students to pay attention to our ‘Park Smart’ initiative. That way, they can stay up to date on all the changes that might come about to on campus parking.”
Another service students can use is the Shuttle Tracker, which gives students the ability to track the shuttles around campus. The service can be found online or through any smartphone at the website: www.selu.edu/traxx.
“We’re friendly, and we care about all of our students,” said Business Manager of Parking Operations Cora L. von Aspern.