Students who drive to campus every day now have more parking options.

New commuter lots were created during Fall Break. The metered lots by Harshman and Kreischer residence halls have been converted into parking lots for commuter students.

The previous lack of usage of these lots brought upon the change, along with the need for more commuter parking, said Aaron Kane, Parking Services Manager, in an email.

“We are always looking at ways to improve parking on campus,” Kane said in the email. ”We had an entire area of under-utilization that we thought would help to relieve some of the stress on commuters.”

Students who needed convenient parking on that particular side of campus won’t have to spend as much time competing for parking, but they must have a commuter lot permit in order to park in these lots.

“Originally these spaces were metered, and for a majority of each school week they sat empty.” Kane said

These lots have been far from empty since the conversion, according to Kane.

“So far, it appears the spaces are being used very frequently,” he said.

Some students think that this conversion can be beneficial to commuting students.

“They are in a pretty convenient spot,” said senior Ashandre Mitchell. “With the two new commuter lots, there is a better chance of not having to waste time going up and down every aisle looking for your car.”

Although these lots are beneficial to some students, other students have not been able to benefit from the conversion of these lots.

“I would rarely use the lots near Harshman and Kreischer,” said senior Ambyr Burrus. “They are pretty distant from where I need to go.”

Parking Services conducts studies to see which lots are beneficial to students and which ones are not.

“We are always monitoring parking lot usage and need,” Kane said. ”We are currently performing a study specifically on commuter lot usage.”

While there are not any specific plans to create any new commuter lots on campus, Parking Services is not ruling out the possibility.

“We will be using this study as we look to add parking or adjust parking lot designation,” Kane said.