TCU Police’s parking and transportation services division has shifted from a paper-based application process to an online procedure, according to Janet Martin, administrative assistant for the TCU Police.

Students can now sign up for their parking permits using their my.tcu.edu accounts, where a parking permit tab appears in the drop-down menu under the student center link.
TCU Police notified students about the shift in application process, which began in May, via email late July.

Sophomore criminal justice major Amy Preaux commented on the ease and straightforwardness of the new electronic permit process.

Preaux said that when she  filled out her parking permit application at the TCU Police Station last year, she did not know most of the vehicle registration information the application required.

“I had to call my father because I didn’t know anything about my car,” she said.

Martin said stories like Preaux’s were the main motivation that prompted the change to an online, computerized system for application registration and processing.

“The main reason for the change was the convenience to the students. They could access it at home, 24 hours a day,” Martin said. “The new system helped the application process for both students and the TCU Police, with fewer students lining up at the police station to register for their permits this year,” she said.

Under the new application system, students can pick up their parking permit stickers at the TCU Police Station once their applications are submitted online.

Senior business major Jason Moore said TCU should consider going a step further to make the process even more efficient and convenient by having the permit stickers mailed to a student’s TCU mailbox.

“We still need to take the extra step. We need to use gas and drive to the TCU Police office to pick up our permits,” Moore said.

Martin said since TCU is a campus with a small population, the current method of students picking up their permits at the TCU Police Station seemed more beneficial to students. Students got their permits right away and were also briefed on parking regulations on campus when they came to pick up their permits, she said.

Both Preaux and Moore agreed the new online system was far better than the paper-based application process of the past and a good initiative toward the green movement on campus.
While it was not the primary motivation for the change, the shift to a computerized system for parking permit application was yet another example of TCU’s environmentally friendly practices around campus, Martin said.

The Princeton Review recognized TCU’s nearly two-decade long eco-friendly efforts by including TCU in its 2011 Edition of “Guide to 311 Green Colleges” on April 20.

Martin said most students have responded positively to the change.

“They love it. Both students and parents have repeatedly said that this is the easiest thing that they have done at TCU,” she said.