Freshmen/Sophomore Residential Student Parking Prohibition
In order to preserve the natural beauty of our campus, UC Santa Cruz encourages the use of a variety of sustainable transportation options to minimize the need for parking lots. Because parking spaces are a limited resource on campus, UCSC has a parking permit prohibition for first and second-year residential students. The parking permit prohibition applies to those who live in any on- or off-campus University Housing facility, and covers all types of campus parking permits (including temporary daily, weekly, and monthly permits) except for motorcycle permits.
All students can buy a temporary campus parking permit during the following periods:
Learn about off-campus parking options.
Learn how students can get around using Cruz511 (UCSC rideshare community) and Zipcar, our carsharing program.
Campus parking permit eligibility:
- Permit eligibility status for residential students is determined by the number of units (90 units) completed by Fall of the current academic year. This status remains in place and does not change throughout the academic year. Residential students who have completed less than 90 units or achieve this threshold by winter or spring of the current academic year are ineligible for parking, but may pursue parking through an appeal process.
- Commuting students who do not live in University housing (includes freshmen and sophomore students as long as they don't live in a University housing facility) are eligible.
- Disabled students that qualify for a disability-related parking accommodation are eligible.
On rare occasions first and second-year residential students may be granted a parking exception by the Parking Review Panel. The following reasons are considered for a parking exception:
- Economic need when a student must rely on income from a job not served by public transportation.
- Academic need including off-campus classes, research, or field study not served by public transportation.
- Family need, i.e. continuing care of a sick or disabled immediate family member.
- When a student has frequent in-person medical/dental appointments whose location is not served by public transportation.
- If the student is currently either a Veteran, a member of the National Guard or in the Reserves.
- If the student is currently enrolled in class or employed at the Coastal Science Campus.
To request an exception to the parking permit prohibition:
- review and fill out an online appeal form
- to expedite your appeal, upload all your required documentation on the appeal form
- do not submit a parking permit application with your appeal; if your appeal is approved, then you will submit your permit application online
- understand that temporary permits will not be issued while an appeal is pending
See Also
