A8
WHAT TO KNOW
KANSAN.COM
Missy Minear/KANSAN
The sign for Lot 90, near the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center. Lot 90 will undergo changes due to construction.
What students should know about parking on campus
A parking ticket sits under the windshield wiper of a car on campus
▶ HAILEY DIXON
@_hailey_dixon
With the start of the fall semester just around the corner, parking at campus is going to be a little bit tighter.
With spaces limited know the rules
At a community forum earlier this year, it was announced that there would be a loss of 1,300 spots due to construction for the 2016-17 school year.
"Students should know the rules with regard to their own permit," said Donna Hultine, director of Parking and Transit. "If they buy a residence hall permit, for example, they should know which parking lots their permit allows them to use. Students should read signage at the entrances to parking lots. The sign includes what type of permit is valid to park there and the times the permit is required."
Despite the restrictions on the spaces, students will still be held responsible for parking according to the rules, which includes parking according to their permit.
To purchase a permit, students will have to register for a parking account
File Photo/KANSAN
on parking.ku.edu and will be able to buy the permit through the portal.
Students living on-campus will need to buy the pass that correlates to the lot for their dorm.
Students should know the rules with regard to their own permit."
Donna Hultine
Director of Parking and
Transit
The downside of the residential dorm parking is even though one is guaranteed a parking permit if they purchase one, there may not be spots in close proximity to their dorm.
On campus, there are many different traffic signs that students need to keep an eye out for. Signs state at the top the lot number and what kind of permit is needed to park there, the hours the lot is restricted.
"In my experience, there weren't enough spots by the dorms for how many people had parking passes," Kim Kaufman, a sophomore from Humboldt, said.
Know your permit
Color zones, which consist of blue, red, yellow and gold, will be marked with the specific color on the top of the sign.
With parking on campus comes parking violations. If a student gets a parking ticket, it can be paid through the same parking portal that a student buys a pass through. Furthermore, a student can file an appeal
"Each sign is different," Hultine said. "For example, yellow zones are generally restricted (appropriate permit required) 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. In residence halls lots, restrictions are generally 7 a.m. Monday through 5 p.m.Friday."
on a parking ticket.
Abbey Snell, an alumna from McPherson, commuted to campus last year. She remembered the difficulty of parking close to the recreation center, where she often visited.
"It was always a struggle to find a spot in the recreation parking lot," Snell said. "I parked near, in stadium parking too, and it was a pretty long walk. Sometimes, it was hard to find a spot. On the bright side, I did not receive any parking tickets at my time at KU."
How to deal with tickets
If a student is new and receiving their first parking violation, they can take a First Time Ticket Forgiveness Quiz for a chance to get their first ticket fee waived.
"Additionally, students can also come into our office at 1501 Irving Hill Road during office hours to pay tickets in person," Hultine said.
To avoid getting a parking ticket, students are encouraged to look closely at signs, and always park in their designated areas.
Choosing a permit
Commuting students can purchase a yellow, garage yellow, park and ride, or carpool permit. Carpool permits are new to the Fall 2016 semester, and allow students in groups of three or more individuals to park in lot 52 or 61, or other student yellow zones. These permits cost $229 per student.
Graduate students are eligible to purchase an annual parking permit for the Allen Fieldhouse garage for
For students still wanting to purchase a pass, permits are still available. None of the yellow area permits have sold out yet.
$217. Students have to be put on a waiting list to gain this type of permit, however, and this typically takes close to a year.
"We're still taking names for lottery lists for all housing. Lotteries will be conducted Aug. 19," Hultine said. "Students should watch their official KU e-mail for notification."
Campus construction leads to updates in accessibility
▶ WILL WEBBER
@wmwebber
As construction continues and new buildings emerge, the ADA Resource Center for Equity & Accessibility is working to ensure that students of all abilities can access the entire campus.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), initially passed in 1990, received updates in 2010 to ensure greater design standards for new buildings and renovations. According to Catherine Johnson, director of the University's ADA office, these standards provide for accessible ramps, elevators, lifts and more to accommodate students with a wide range of abilities.
"We're built into a hill, so figuring out how to navigate the topography is a huge challenge," Johnson said.
However, these standards only apply to structures and renovations implemented after 2012, according to the ADA website. Many of the University's older buildings and historical buildings still remain below standards of accessibility. But construction of new dorms and buildings such as the business school along with renovations to buildings like Summerfield Hall are improving the landscape over time.
According to Johnson, multiple offices are accountable for accessibility in the construction process. Many of these features are obvious to contractors, such as ramps and elevators, as well as accessible bathrooms with full-size stalls and lower sinks. But not all disabilities are visible, and the Office of Design & Construction Management (DCM) works with the
crews to highlight some of the finer details.
sized while creating and modifying digital materials. The ADA office aided in the recent launch of Accessible KU, an umbrella site for all accessibility resources and offices offered at KU. The site includes a number of visual resources, such as accessibility maps, that are still being updated in light of ongoing construction.
"There's a requirement in the 2010 standards for auditoriums to have assistive listening systems," Johnson said. "And sometimes that's something that's forgotten until it's pointed out."
Budig, Haworth and the new Capitol Federal Hall have all been outfitted with assistive listening systems to help people with hearing impairments in lecture halls. These accommodations include an FM microphone system and an induction looping system installed in the floors and ceilings of the venue, to transmit audio from lecturers directly to students' hearing aids.
"Some of [the maps] are old enough that they have buildings that don't exist on them anymore," Johnson said. "We're all aware of that and we're working on it."
Presently, Accessible KU offers four separate maps for main campus, west campus, parking and the Hawk Route. The parking map is the most recently updated, since it includes the two new dorms, but Johnson is working to combine all four into a single, comprehensive map.
Johnson stressed the importance of inclusivity for all disabilities when designing new features. She said this has been empha-
The Hawk Route is an accessible route connecting Sunnyside Avenue with Jayhawk Boulevard through a network of ramps, elevators and tunnels. According to the ADA office, the route is about 450 feet and guides users both inside and outside with signs labeled "Hawk Route," located along pathways and near automatic doors and elevators. As of now, the Hawk Route primarily utilizes those buildings in compliance with the 2010 standards.
"We're working on making that route even more accessible," said Johnson.
Johnson said the ADA office is creating video guides to show people using the route. It is currently being edited and will likely be rolled out in August. The Hawk Route will also be supplemented with an audio script of the route so
people with visual impairments can download it as a podcast and more easily navigate campus.
While the Americans with Disabilities Act requires campuses to comply with certain standards of accessibility, it does not provide any funding for Universities to do so, Johnson said. The DCM has a list of projects that are not up to standards and sets aside money for ADA projects, but it's up to University leadership to determine how that money is spent.
"Some of our buildings are older, so it's a challenge to include every site that someone might want to access," she said. "Every building on campus needs to be accessible. There is a cost to keep in mind, but if there's a building we know that doesn't have an elevator, that has to be a top priority."
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