In an email to the Brandeis community sent on Aug. 13, Assistant Vice President of Public Safety Matthew Rushton informed students that on-campus parking would only be available for seniors and students with disability accommodations. This represented a major change from last year, when parking was available to both juniors and seniors, as well as some sophomores, through a lottery.
The changes to parking availability are a result of the construction of a new residence hall. The new building is being constructed in what used to be the South Residence Lot (X Lot), eliminating 211 parking spaces. Those with parking passes for X Lot were reassigned to J Lot. However, as Rushton noted in his email, “The new residence hall construction has significantly impacted parking availability on campus beyond the footprint of the new building.” Due to the construction, approximately 100 spots in Theater Lot are being used for construction staging, while the adjacent parking lot is being used for campus operations. Several spots in the Charles River Lot have also been converted to contractor parking spaces during the construction.
While X Lot has been permanently destroyed, Rushton stressed the temporary nature of the other changes in his email, writing, “Once construction activity in the Theater Lot is complete and parking demand stabilizes, we will reassess junior parking availability, and open the application process as we are able to do so. Thank you for your patience.” He did not provide a timeline for when this would happen.
Delays at the parking office also prevented students from picking up their parking passes for the first few weeks of the semester. In previous years, parking passes were available to be picked up prior to move-in. This year, while upperclassmen moved in between Aug. 24 and Aug. 26, student parking passes were not available for pickup until Sept. 4. Parking office staff distributed these passes at the blue huts in Fellows Garden on Sept. 9, 10 and 11. In an InBrief Newsletter sent to the community, it was announced that there would be a few-week grace period before ticketing began. It was not said how long this grace period would last.
Photo Credit: Elienne Grossman ’26
