In an attempt to make the assignment of parking permits more fair, The Butler Parking Services Office has introduced a new parking permit lottery through the T2 Flex Portal system. Permits that were once first come, first serve have turned into pure luck.
In the past, the parking services portal would open at the same time for everyone, allowing Butler students and staff to purchase a permit. For the most part, we knew we’d get a good permit based on when we were able to log on. Permits like B and AV are ideal because they include multiple areas across campus to park in and they surround the more central part of Butler, whereas I-lot is a 20-minute walk for many students.
One of the most challenging parts of obtaining a permit last year was that I was unable to log on during the limited time frame that parking services gave students and faculty to get their permits. Students had jobs, internships, family vacations and hobbies during the summer. It wasn’t exactly ideal for us to drop what we were doing to try and get a parking permit, let alone a good one like B-lot.
Sophomore elementary education major Molly Gerstner scrambled to get on the website in time, because of her job, and had issues with staying logged into the portal because it crashed several times. After all the hassle she went through, she disappointingly got an I-lot permit.
“When I was trying to log on to the website, I couldn’t get it to work,” Gerstner said. “I was babysitting at the time, so I was trying to watch the kids and do both and it was stressful. The site kept crashing and kicking me out even after I waited in the queue.”
If better communication about the process of this system had been provided, Gerstner would have known she didn’t need to be logged into the portal right when it launched at 9:00 a.m. She also wouldn’t have had to worry about the website crashing repeatedly.
This new system, however, was designed to be more fair towards students purchasing permits. Instead of racing each other to the website as soon as it launched, this year’s parking permit distribution was based on pure, unbiased chance. When the website launched this summer, I was under the impression that, similarly to the parking permit systems in the past, we needed to beat time in order to be first in line.
The T2 Flex Portal system generates which parking permits you’re eligible for based on where you live on campus and automatically places you on a waitlist for any of those permits.
During the time this portal was scheduled to launch, the system stopped students from joining the waitlist because it was overloaded by its users. This glitch is ultimately why many Butler students had trouble navigating this new system.
Some students felt this T2 Flex portal did exactly what it was supposed to do, and had an overall great experience with it. However, for others, this system brought just as much anxiety and stress as last year’s system.
However, the portal was never intended to carry hundreds of students, faculty and staff right when it launched. That’s because it never mattered when you logged in to the portal; your odds of getting a parking permit were the same whether you waited in line on the website right when it launched, or the next day.
The parking permit lottery is a far more equitable way of assigning permits because it doesn’t take into account when you sign up for a permit. According to Jeremy Moore, the associate director of parking services, the portal should become more reliable and effective in the future.
Evan Bryan, a sophomore psychology and political science double major, shared his thoughts on the fairness and accessibility of the new system.
“I feel like it was more of a struggle,” Bryan said. “Especially the fact that the website crashed and they kept delaying [access to purchase a permit].”
As stated by Moore, once the portal glitched out and crashed, parking services did everything they could to get it back up and running.
Summer Marcinkus, a junior entrepreneurship and supply chain management double major, expressed her mixed feelings now that the dust has settled.
“I do think it’s more fair… I’m glad a first-year can’t apply for T1 and get it,” Marcinkus said. “So, I think that it’s better with determining who should go where, it’s just unfortunate if you don’t get the one that you want.”
Thankfully, Butler is undergoing construction on the Safety and Transit Hub, which will add additional parking opportunities.
Many students didn’t end up with the parking permit they wanted. Some of us, myself included, are still waiting to get one. However, we can’t deny the fact that this new parking system is far more equal amongst students. With each new year, I am confident that parking services will continue to progress and advance with this system.