Dear Comets,

With the recent construction occurring around campus, especially near the Student Union and the Student Success Center, we have received various concerned messages over the past few months regarding the state of campus parking. In regards to this, The University of Texas at Dallas community is asked to make note of the following suggestions when it comes to arriving on campus.

Carpool With a Friend

In order to reduce the environmental impact we have here at UTD, you can help create a more sustainable world by riding with a friend to campus. Sustainability is a collaborative effort and requires all members of UTD to contribute. This will also prevent the amount of cars needing to be parked, thus allowing you to attend class on time while your friend finds an available space to park.

Upgrade Your Permit

We offer various types of parking permits to ensure availability to everyone. If you are having difficulty finding parking, you may upgrade your permit at any time. By doing this, your purchase will provide us with the necessary funds to run our beautiful campus. We could use this funding to build new parking structures, repave parking lots, improve services, and provide general maintenance. We cannot confirm if this is where the money will actually go, however. Please ask Parking & Transportation for more information if you can find their email address. If you are struggling to differentiate between our Gold and Orange permits, we recommend purchasing our newest color, Pink, that will be implemented for a limited time during Fall 2024 for only $1,000 a year. Purple parking is still exclusively for staff, but Pink parking will be even more expensive — and therefore better.

Arrive Early

Regular and punctual class attendance is expected at UTD. To prevent scholastic difficulty from failing to attend class regularly, make sure to arrive more than 24 hours before your class to ensure the most punctuality to campus. However, you may not park overnight on campus unless you purchase our Evening Orange permit.

Live on Campus

University Housing always strives to provide an exceptional residential experience to all students, and we intend to expand our residence halls even further — the name changes are just the start. By applying for housing, you will have the opportunity to find community alongside the many residents of our dorms. If you seek financial aid, we invite you to apply for our generous variety of scholarships. We are not, however, liable for any expenses you will need to cover when the scholarship money never arrives. If for some reason you cannot find a room in our expansive dorms, we alternatively recommend sleeping overnight or preparing a tent in our classrooms on campus — as long as you clear out your sleeping bag before any lectures or events. This option removes any need for commuting and therefore parking, so it’s a very cost effective solution. Be sure to get Green Parking just in case, though. You never know when you might need it.

Ride Your Bike

There are over 300 registered student organizations on campus, including our Cycling Club. As a Bicycle Friendly University, we highly encourage our UTD community to ride their bikes whenever you can. If you have concerns about riding up to 20 miles a day to campus and back, the Cycling Club runs intermediate sessions for up to 25 miles. By participating in the club, you will be able to adapt to the highway and travel up to speeds of 70 mph. This will ensure lifelong well-being and will benefit you as a part of our Bicycle Friendly environment. We also offer maintenance clinics for bikes that are in disrepair, as long as you participate in our Bicycle Friendly community and pay a small fee of $100.

Ask a Fellow Peer to Move Their Vehicle

Our welcoming campus community encourages collaboration. Thus, we ask members of our community to make room for their peers. We know that some students wish campus life were more lively, so this is also a great opportunity for some friendly competition. Do remember that under the law, individuals seen engaging in vandalism could be subject to fines and charged with a criminal offense. Vandalism includes but is not limited to scraping, painting, egging, toilet papering, or shattering. Please ensure that university officials do not see you using these methods to get your preferred spot.

Believe in Your Luck

Since St. Patrick’s Day is fast approaching, we advise our campus community to observe this holiday of luck. By trusting in luck, you will be able to find that parking is a lot more available here than what you may have previously thought. If wishing on rainbows doesn’t work, you may try a few pagan rituals to improve your chances. Just be careful choosing your rituals, as performing the wrong one could instead summon a demon, or worse, give you seven years of bad luck instead.

Teleport

Many of our UTD programs are nationally ranked, including our STEM and social science courses. We have multiple Nobel-winning alumni here at UTD and we are always taking things a step further. We only use about 10% of our brains and thus still have the capabilities to grow our skill sets. Once we develop the ability to teleport, you will be able to appear right in your classroom. According to research, we will be able to reach our full potential by the year 187,452, so have faith.

We will continue to expand our campus to provide the best resources and newest equipment to our campus community. Thank you for your patience.