This semester’s increased number of students residents housed at The Grove has caused commuter parking lots to fill up on campus and has been a hot-button issue among students.

“I would estimate that right now during the peak hours we might reach about 90 percent of our parking capacity,” Dan Williams, chief of police, said.

Students were informed of the Mustang Route, a shuttle service which does a loop around campus and the Grove, but manystudents have decided to commute instead.

“First of all, we notified them [of the Mustang Route] at Spirit Days,” Michael Mills, housing director, said.

While shuttle service runs every 10 minutes during the morning and every 20 minutes until 10 p.m., some student residents at The Grove feel the  shuttle bus is inconvenient and they must adapt to the day-to-day inconsistencies of the shuttle schedule.

“I’m either half an hour early or 10 minutes late to my class,” Bailey Mandrell, freshman in nursing, said. “They say that there scheduled to leave every 10 minutes, but it all depends on the traffic and the amount of people who want on and off the bus.”

Students often choose to park in a reserved spot instead of a commuter parking space when they are pressed for time.

Williams said police officers have issued approximately 60 tickets on cars with inappropriate permits.

“I truly believe that most of the time when students park in an area not designated by their permit, it is due to the fact that they do not want to have to park and walk,” Williams said.

To accommodate the increase in the number of commuters, the number of parking spots, including adding two new lots, one near the police station and one near McCoy.

“There may be issues with getting to park exactly where we desire, but I don’t think MSU has run out of parking spaces,” Mills said.

While there is enough parking on campus, the occasional student expresses frustration with how far of a distance parking is from their classes, especially when they don’t arrive on campus until minutes before class begins.

“I paid $50 to not even park near my dorm,” Sarah Schutza, freshman in athletic training and education, said.

Williams and Mills said once the students are moved into dorms and students transfer out next semester that parking will even out in both resident and commuter parking.

“As housing moves a student from The Grove back to on-campus housing, that student’s vehicle registration permit will be replaced with a resident permit,” Williams said