Parking and Transportation Services has launched a new customer service curb-side check-in process, which will be required for any customer who chooses to come to the office.

Dr. Jennifer Tougas, Director of Parking and Transportation, says that the process was inspired by other businesses in the community such as restaurants and doctor offices. 

“Our lobby is pretty small. Typically as we get closer to the start of school we get a lot of people coming to our office to renew their permits or to buy their permits for the new year and we recognised that we didn’t have space to have social distancing inside the building,” said Tougas.

Tougas says that students are still being encouraged to buy their permits online and have them mailed to them.

This new process is to maintain social distancing and have one customer with one service agent at a time to minimize the amount of people in the building.

They encourage you to register prior to arrival or once you get to the office at wku.edu/ptscheckin. Upon registering you must check-in and upon arrival, select ‘I’m Here’ and you must wait until you receive a ‘Come In’ message.

There is a virtual wait line with a limit of two customers in the lobby who choose to come to the office. Masks will be required for anyone entering the building.  

Other adjustments will be made to Parking and Transportation in the Fall, with majority being on the transportation side. Tougas says that they are working with the university’s public relation’s team to develop a short video to explain the changes.

To limit the amount of passengers and maintain social distance there will also be many changes to the transit route such as increasing cleaning protocols and installing shields for the drivers.

Loading and unloading will only be done from the rear doors,there will be social distancing markers and new bus routes will prioritize access to campus over on campus circulation.

The WKU Spirit Route will include Russellville Road, PS3, Chestnut Street, Cherry Hall, Kentucky Street Apartments and the Columns.The College Heights Route will include South Campus, Campus Evolution Villages, PS3 and Avenue of Champions.

Evening On-Demand Van Service, Topper Taxi, will be provided through the TapRide App.

Parking will not face any changes. According to Tougas, parking will be promoting an existing service. While the university decides how classes will be taught, many students may not be on campus as much as they were in the past.

Tougas says that since students are not on campus like how they used to be, the flat fee for an annual permit does not seem like the right permit anymore. 

“We have a park mobile reservation system where a student can say ‘I’m only going to be on campus on Tuesday, let me buy parking for the day and we will have several locations across campus where students can make those reservations for the day.

Tougas encourages students to keep an eye on their emails as well as their official website for more announcements and information at https://www.wku.edu/transportation/