MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — MTSU students can avoid long last-minute lines for their campus parking permits again this fall, thanks to the university’s Parking and Transportation Services plan to repeat its drive-thru pickup operation.
The campus office initiated its plan in August 2020, during the pandemic’s early stages, to keep students and other campus community members safer when they returned to campus for the 2020-21 academic year.
A good community response, plus MTSU’s newly reinstated mask requirements and the continuing danger of the deadly delta variant of the coronavirus, convinced Parking and Transportation Services to bring back the drive-thru option for fall 2021 classes, which begin Monday, Aug. 23.
As students move into campus housing by appointment now through Saturday, August 21st, Parking Services will issue their permits as they drive through the move-in operation in MTSU's Champion Way Parking Garage and lot.
Then, Monday through Wednesday, Aug. 23-25, both commuter and resident students can pick up their parking permits at the corner of Alumni Drive and City View Drive on the east side of campus, near the new Parking and Transportation Services Building.
Those drive-thru hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 23-24 and 7:30 a.m.-noon Aug. 25. Students should use Womack Lane or Blue Raider Drive to line up on Alumni Drive headed east, toward Rutherford Boulevard; permits will be distributed in the bus lane on Alumni Drive between Blue Raider and City View.
Students who need a disabled parking permit should go to the Parking and Transportation Services Building lot at 205 City View Drive to pick it up.
All students will need their MTSU ID and will need to be inside the vehicle they’re registering to park on campus to get their new permits. Their tuition also must be paid to receive a permit.
Students who want to get their new parking permits before classes start Aug. 23 can go directly to the Parking and Transportation Services Building between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. through Friday afternoon, Aug. 21.
Each customer and visitor must wear a mask and maintain appropriate distancing inside the building.
The plan follows MTSU's health safety protocols by moving the normally crowded operation outdoors, rain or shine, and reducing the usual crowds inside the Parking and Transportation Services office, says Tracy Read, the university's director of parking and transportation.
Each student’s parking permit is included in the Student Program Services Fee they pay for their enrolled course hours each semester. That total also includes technology access, postal service, health services and facilities fees.
Students, faculty and staff with state-issued placards or plates for handicapped-accessible parking must visit the Parking and Transportation Services office for a fall 2021 MTSU parking permit.
PDFs with details and maps of the drive-thru plans are available at http://ow.ly/PwRW30rRk16.
For more information about parking at MTSU, visit https://mtsu.edu/parking or email parking@mtsu.edu.
MTSU begins its 2021-22 academic year on Aug. 23 with the fall 2021 semester. For information about MTSU anytime, visit https://mtsu.edu.
