Nearly 200 more yellow permit parking spots will open up for students.

Parking Services plans to make changes to deal with the issues some students have had finding open parking spots around campus. In particular, Parking Services Director Scott Kangas said yellow permit spots — reserved for commuting students — would be opened up.

“We will change Lot 40 and Lot 9 [faculty lots by the Engineering Building] to all yellow,” Kangas said. “We will move the 16 orange reserve spots in Lot E over to Lot 2 to open up 16 yellow spaces. We will add 16 yellow spaces on the east island. This means that yellow permit holders will gain 187 spots total.”

While Parking Services works to make its changes, some commuter students are still struggling to park on campus.

“… I missed my first class this year because they took away a lot of yellow pass spots,” said Phil Graham, junior computer science major. “I drove here from Crystal Lake just to turn around and go home.”

Kangas said there are 6,311 yellow permit spaces on campus, including handicapped spots — the same amount as last year. According to a March Northern Star article, fall 2012 enrollment was 21,869; fall 2013 enrollment has not been released, but there are about 4,200 students living on campus.

In addition, more parking permits were sold this year than last year: 3,908 yellow passes have been sold, while 3,428 were sold last year.

There have been a few lucky commuter students, though.

“Every Wednesday and Thursday, I show up after 4 p.m. I’m always able to park in the blue lot with my pass, so I haven’t yet had a problem,” said Karen Vanderweel, senior special education major.