The process for applying for a permit has been modified since an announcement earlier in the spring. Preferred permits will now be allocated via a random lottery. In addition, due to budget implications, the previously announced system, which would have allowed for online credit card payments, has been temporarily suspended.

Information about the new process is available on the Web at http://www6.semo.edu/news.

The online system will allow students to select a payment option -- cash, check or electronic debit of their checking account. Students will not be able to charge their permit online to a credit card, but they may choose to pay with a credit card in person or by mail.

Registration for 2002-2003 parking permits will open at 8 a.m. July 8 and close at 4 p.m. July 19. Students may apply and pay for permits online, or they may complete a standard paper application, which will be mailed to students in early July. Students who apply using Southeast S.O.S. should click on the "Parking Permit Registration" option on the Southeast S.O.S. page located at http://www.semo.edu/webapps/. There, they may choose their payment method.

Students should apply using only one method. Regardless of which method a student chooses when applying, all students who, by 4 p.m. July 19, apply and pay their account in full for the fall semester plus the appropriate parking application fee or make their first installment payment on their account for the fall 2002 semester plus the appropriate parking application fee will be eligible for the preferred parking permit lottery.

At 4 p.m. July 19, the parking permit lottery system will be closed. Lottery numbers will be assigned and preferred permits will be issued on or about July 24.

Following the lottery, preferred permits will be mailed to students beginning July 24 through Aug. 14. Perimeter permits will be issued and mailed daily following payment.

The online parking application system will reopen July 22.

The new online parking registration system - like the paper application -- will allow students to select their first, second and third parking choices. The system will programmatically put a student on a waiting list if they do not initially receive their first choice. If preferred parking options become sold out, a perimeter parking permit will be issued and the student's name will be added to a preferred waiting list. The difference in cost of the preferred and perimeter permit will be credited to the student's account, Glaus said.

Preferred permit applications - whether received online, in person at the Bursar's Office or via mail - will not be assigned a random lottery number until a full or installment payment on the student's account is received, Glaus said.

Glaus reminds students that first-year resident students are not eligible to apply for preferred permits. She also reminds students that perimeter permits become valid in preferred commuter lots after 1:30 p.m. and in employee lots at academic buildings at 5 p.m.

All new parking permits will be mailed to students and will be valid through August 2003. Students who leave the University after the fall 2002 semester and do not return for the spring 2003 semester, may return their decal during fall finals week and receive a partial refund, she said.

Under a revised decal schedule recently set by the University's Board of Regents, preferred parking decals will cost $135, up from $80 this year. The cost of perimeter decals will be $85, up from $45 this year. Evening decals will cost $45, up from $25.

Parking decal rates were last increased in 1993 when the perimeter/preferred system was adopted. The revenue generated from the increases will be used to pay for bonds issued to finance the construction of two new parking garages to be constructed on campus next academic year.

Under the approved schedule, fines for first violations will remain at the current levels, but violators will pay four times that level for second and subsequent parking violations, beginning with the start of the fall 2002 semester on Aug. 19. This is double the present fine for second and subsequent violations.

These fines will be in effect until the two new parking garages are completed. After the garages are open, the Regents approved doubling the current fines for first violations.

Dr. Pauline Fox, vice president for administration and enrollment management, said fines for parking violations have not been adjusted in more than 10 years.

"The current levels of ticket fines no longer deter many violators," she said, adding that last year, more than 700 students had more than 10 parking violations. Of those, over 100 accrued between 15 and 19 tickets, and over 130 accrued in excess of 20 tickets."

By adjusting the fines, it is expected that more parking spaces will be freed up for students who follow the University's parking regulations, as well as faculty and staff, she said.