As the fall semester approaches, now is a great time to review how to park at Salt Lake Community College campuses.
Students who regularly drive to school know the pain of finding a good parking spot. This is especially true during the first week of the semester.
Here are five tips that will help students when it comes to parking on campus.
1. Prepare to park
At all SLCC campuses, students who drive to school are required to have a valid SLCC parking permit.
To obtain a SLCC parking permit, students must have a valid vehicle registration. Permits are issued to specific vehicles, and are non-transferable.
Stickers are issued to students that drive only one car, and hangtags are issued to students with two or more vehicles. For multiple cars, the student must provide valid registrations for each vehicle.
2. Get your pass early
The first week of each semester is the busiest. Lines for everything are long.
“I always buy my permit a couple weeks before the semester begins,” says accounting student Spencer Birth. “When I first started at SLCC, I made the mistake of trying to buy my permit on the first day of class. The visitor parking lot was full, the line to get a permit was really long, and I ended up getting a ticket because I didn’t know where I should park.”
Parking permits are available for purchase online and at all SLCC campuses.
Many SLCC campuses have visitor parking lots. These lots are either metered parking spots or part of a pay lot.
3. Arrive early to get a spot
Campus parking fills up very fast. The earlier you arrive to a class, the more likely it is to find a good spot.
Having a SLCC parking permit does not guarantee any student a parking space. As with all parking lots, parking is on a first come, first served basis.
“The worst feeling is pulling up to school as your class is about to start, and the only parking spot you can find is on the opposite end of campus,” says general studies student Christina Miller. “I now make sure I’m at least 20 minutes early so that I can find a place to park, and still make it to class on time.”
4. Know the rules
Students who drive to school and have a valid permit must still follow certain rules when parking at a SLCC campus.
In SLCC parking lots, students should look for spots that have solid yellow lines on each side of the vehicle. Solid blue lines surrounding a parking spot are reserved for SLCC faculty and staff.
A valid SLCC parking permit must be visible on every vehicle parked at a SLCC campus. Stickers much be stuck to the lower left corner of the front windshield. Hangtags are to be displayed on the rear-view mirror with the date visible.
For students without a regular permit, temporary permits are available at all SLCC campuses.
5. Be smart
Above all else, use common sense.
Be courteous to fellow students and drivers. Being late to a class is preferable to rear-ending another person while fighting for the best parking spot.
Following traffic laws, parking in approved areas and being prepared to park are ideas to make parking at SLCC a little easier.
