Campus parking permits will be made available to sophomores this school year after the Department of Public and Environmental Safety (DPES) this week reversed a temporary policy prohibiting sophomores from purchasing such permits.
Worries that work on the newly finished Steve Tisch Fitness Center might interfere with the sophomore parking lot behind Cousens Gym prompted the DPES to notify sophomores this summer that their parking privileges were being revoked, according to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman.
"There was a lot of construction on campus [this] summer and it wasn't clear the Cousens lot was going to be available because of all the construction down there," Reitman said.
Upon reevaluation during the first weeks of the semester, however, DPES and the Dean of Student Affairs Office determined there was enough space to allow sophomores to bring their cars to the Hill. 125 parking permits will be made available to sophomores this year, said DPES Administrative Services Supervisor Louis Galvez.
Yet some sophomores wish they had been notified of the new policy before arriving on campus without their cars. Sophomore Daniel Jubelirer told the Daily that having a car on campus this year would have made traveling around campus and New England more convenient.
"I feel like a lot of the Medford, Boston [and] New England area has a lot of space that is not accessible by T," Jubelirer said.
Sophomore Charles Rubin said having a car would make traveling home for breaks cheaper and more convenient for transporting equipment to his lacrosse practices.
"All year I'm going down to the athletic facilities five to six times a week, so it would've just made life a lot easier for me," Rubin said.
The university's policy on sophomore parking has fluctuated since 2009, when sophomores were prohibited from purchasing permits.
The ban was lifted in 2010 because of a decrease in the number of sophomores requesting parking permits.
Permit parking requests from the 2011-2012 sophomore class increased by 38 from the previous year, according to Director of Public and Environmental Safety Kevin Maguire. Demand was pushed up even further this year, according to Reitman.
Though sophomores will still be limited to certain campus parking lots, Reitman said the Tufts University Police Department's new GoSafe ride service, replacing Safe Rides, will transport students from parking lots within a set perimeter back to their dormitories.
"There are sometimes complaints from sophomores that they are regulated to the peripheral lots like Cousens, and then they have to get to the dormitories and it's far," Reitman told the Daily.
"GoSafe has replaced the safety shuttle; it is a new escort service. It's in addition to the Joey, because the Joey can't get you to the halls or parking lots."
Reitman said that the only concerns sophomores have ever expressed with parking are about their respective lots.
"That's the only issue and it's not likely to change because it would be revolution to take away the seniority of seniors and juniors to get the prime locations," he said.
"It's going to be the same, which is why we waited, because [Cousens] was the lot impacted by construction."
