MTSU students can avoid long last-minute lines for their campus parking permits again this fall, thanks to the university’s Parking and Transportation Services plan to repeat its drive-thru pickup operation.

The campus office initiated its plan in August 2020, during the pandemic’s early stages, to keep students and other campus community members safer when they returned to campus for the 2020-21 academic year.

A good community response, plus MTSU’s newly reinstated mask requirements and the continuing danger of the deadly delta variant of the coronavirus, convinced Parking and Transportation Services to bring back the drive-thru option for fall 2021 classes, which begin Monday, Aug. 23.

When students begin moving into campus housing by appointment Wednesday, Aug. 18, Parking Services staffers will issue their permits as they drive through the move-in operation in MTSU’s Champion Way Parking Garage and lot.

The move-ins will continue through Saturday, Aug. 21.

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Then, Monday through Wednesday, Aug. 23-25, both commuter and resident students can pick up their parking permits at the corner of Alumni Drive and City View Drive on the east side of campus, near the new Parking and Transportation Services Building.

Those drive-thru hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 23-24 and 7:30 a.m.-noon Aug. 25. Students should use Womack Lane or Blue Raider Drive to line up on Alumni Drive headed east, toward Rutherford Boulevard; permits will be distributed in the bus lane on Alumni Drive between Blue Raider and City View.

Students who need a disabled parking permit should go to the Parking and Transportation Services Building lot at 205 City View Drive to pick it up.

All students will need their MTSU ID and will need to be inside the vehicle they’re registering to park on campus to get their new permits. Their tuition also must be paid to receive a permit.

Students who want to pick up their new parking permits before classes start Aug. 23 can go directly to the Parking and Transportation Services Building between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. through Friday afternoon, Aug. 21.

Each customer and visitor must wear a mask and maintain appropriate distancing inside the building.

The plan follows MTSU’s health safety protocols by moving the normally crowded operation outdoors, rain or shine, and reducing the usual crowds inside the Parking and Transportation Services office, says Tracy Read, the university’s director of parking and transportation.

Michelle Safewright, director of Housing and Residential Life at MTSU, suggests a campus route to a student picking up a parking permit for the new academic year in a special drive-through checkpoint in this August 2020 file photo. Students are moving into MTSU dorms for the 2021-22 academic year through Aug. 21 by individual appointment again to help maintain health safety conditions. The university’s Parking and Transportation Services is joining the move-in checkpoint line — and repeating its drive-through permit pickup for all students Aug. 23-25 — to make the process more efficient. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)

PDFs with details and maps of the drive-thru plans are available here.

Each student’s parking permit is included in the Student Program Services Fee they pay for their enrolled course hours each semester. That total also includes technology access, postal service, health services and facilities fees.

Students, faculty and staff with state-issued placards or plates for handicapped-accessible parking must visit the Parking and Transportation Services office for a fall 2021 MTSU parking permit.

For more information about parking at MTSU, visit https://mtsu.edu/parking or email parking@mtsu.edu

MTSU begins its 2021-22 academic year on Aug. 23 with the fall 2021 semester. For information about MTSU anytime, visit https://mtsu.edu.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)

Jamie Chumbley of MTSU’s Parking and Transportation Services hands a new parking permit and brochure to a student at a special drive-through checkpoint in this August 2020 file photo. Students are moving into MTSU dorms for the 2021-22 academic year through Aug. 21 by individual appointment again to help maintain health safety conditions. The university’s Parking and Transportation Services is joining the move-in checkpoint line — and repeating its drive-through permit pickup for all students Aug. 23-25 — to make the process more efficient. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)

Carol Cuff of MTSU Housing and Residential Life checks in with colleagues by radio in this August 2020 file photo while housing director Michelle Safewright, left, and secretary April Branson talk with a student picking up a parking permit for the new academic year in a special drive-through checkpoint. Students are moving into MTSU dorms for the 2021-22 academic year through Aug. 21 by individual appointment again to help maintain health safety conditions. The university’s Parking and Transportation Services is joining the move-in checkpoint line — and repeating its drive-through permit pickup for all students Aug. 23-25 — to make the process more efficient. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)