Everyone on campus has gained parking spaces this fall, and the University Police Department hopes the additional parking will be sufficient to accommodate the enrollment increase and staff office moves.

Over the summer, underclassman gained 35 parking spaces, upperclassman gained 50 to 55 and staff gained 40 to 45, said University Police officer Lt. John Hatfill. Although there are more spaces available, several lots have changed their permit status.

Staff gained one row of parking in the W lot at 7th Street and Roosevelt St., removing 12 to 13 upperclassman spaces. The spaces were changed because many faculty offices from the Doudna Fine Arts Center were relocated to Lawson Hall, which is near the W lot, after the building closed for construction.

When the Thomas Hall parking lot closed for construction of the Health Service Center, 40 upperclassman spaces and 40 staff spaces were lost. To make up for the lost spaces, 63 staff spaces were added in the S lot across from 7th St. The lot was previously all upperclassman parking.

Staff also gained 35 student spaces along 7th Street.

The lost student spaces were made up by turning 173 existing spaces in the S lot to upperclassman parking.

Bill Davidson, a junior political science major and a member of the parking committee, said he was angered that the the University Police Department did not show any of the new changes to the parking committee. He also thought the new spaces would not relieve student parking problems.

“The parking issue has mainly been a student problem because we are so overcrowded, but we need to work together,” Davidson said. “They already have barely any underclassmen parking spots now and they are going to have an even harder time (parking). It’s going to be pretty bad this year, especially for underclassmen. Even the last resort areas are not open this year.”

He said members of the parking committee believed staff parking was underused in certain lots, while student parking was often overcrowded and unavailable. The committee presented their concerns to the the UPD last spring.

“We took pictures of empty spots in faculty and staff parking spots because we wanted to get more spots for students,” Davidson said.

Adam Due, chief public safety officer and head of the parking committee, said the UPD needs to make changes over the summer before people started returning to school and the parking committee was not in session over the summer.

Hatfill said the the University Police Department was still looking at other possibilities to better accommodate students. He said staff were not utilizing all the spaces in the F lot, so the the University Police Department may reanalyze how they use that lot.

“It has been very quiet as far as complaints about parking,” he said.

Hatfill said that he did not believe underclassmen would have a problem finding parking because the UPD has not issued any more underclass permits than last year.

Mitchell said parkers in the W lot have been parking in the driveway and outside the lines, but it was not because of any lack of parking.

“There are too many on campus,” he said. “There is room to park, the problem is they can’t park where they want to park. There is room to park. You just have to walk.”

In the future, Due said the University Police Department would support a proposal to assign students and staff to specific lots, instead of a permit to use any space they can find.

Davidson said that kind of proposal was a goal for the parking committee this year.

“We want to get a survey out for faculty and staff and see if they would like to have designated spots for each individual. I think they need to review their strategy for giving out parking passes,” Davidson said.