The parking lot across from Prince Lucien Campbell Hall no longer allows people without permits to park after hours, instead requiring a permit at all times. The University of Oregon Transportation Services changed the parking policy for the lot, called 16A, on July 1. 

This change was made in an effort “to improve campus safety, ” Director of Transportation Services David Reesor said. The University of Oregon Police Department pressed for the change because individuals who weren’t affiliated with UO began to use the lot in the off-hours, Reesor said. 

On May 4, 2019, Lane Community College student Alex Oyombe Gradin was shot and killed in the same parking lot, and the murder remains unsolved. Reesor said that this incident is related but is not the only reason the change took place. The shooting was “one of the factors considered by police in assessing and addressing safety near campus,” Reesor said. 

Before, students could park there during the evening without repercussions. Now, no one aside from faculty and staff members with permits have that ability. 

Students and community members took  their frustrations with the new policy to Twitter, expressing the inconveniences that this new change caused.

UO got wise to everyone and their mothers using the PLC lot after 6pm…it was good while it lasted folks. pic.twitter.com/Jxtf9Xlh3x

— Andrew Greenblatt (@DatGreenblatt) August 2, 2019

This is a new kind of evil

— Paige DePaepe (@PaigeDePaepe) August 2, 2019

Reesor said that the university empathizes with student and visitor concerns and will consider making changes to the policy in the future, creating some kind of compromise that will encourage campus safety. For now, non-permit users can use lots 17 behind the HEDCO Education Center, 29A on University Street, as well as Kincaid Street and East 15th Avenue.