Commuter students looking to park their cars near east campus now have more spots to choose from.

Campus Parking Services divvied up more spots last week in Lot 2, located at the corner of Lucinda Avenue and Garden Road, for students with yellow passes to park.

“What we noticed is that the southeast lot [of lot 2] was fairly vacant, because of the faculty and staff that used to work in Wirtz that now work in Barsema,” said Ron Pearson, director of Campus Parking Services.

Pearson said the spots that now are allotted to commuter students were spots that used to belong to faculty.

“There was a need for more commuter parking, so the northwest portion of Lot 2 Blue was given to yellow commuter passes,” he said.

The lot now is virtually split down the center, dividing the blue and yellow parts of the parking lot.

Now commuter students are allowed an additional 57 parking spaces in the lot.

“We added on to Lot A and A1, behind the Engineering Building,” Pearson said.

An additional 100 spaces were added there by removing soil and installing gravel for students with brown and yellow permits.

Pearson said that faculty and staff won’t be affected significantly by the change.

“They’ll still have adequate parking,” he said.

Pearson said that by making the changes, students now are able to park easier.

[Students] are not parking in the grass anymore east of [Lot] A and [Lot] A1.”

After restrictions were placed on parking on Garden Road, parking services saw a difference, Pearson said.

“It certainly created a larger use for our inventory,” he said. “Probably 100-plus more permits were sold. Overall, hopefully, it’s a good improvement for students to meet their needs.”