The first week of classes, NKU Parking Services offered a grace period for students who haven’t purchased their parking passes to park without fear of being ticketed. SGA is considering a resolution that, if passed, would extend that grace period to help students waiting for financial aid checks to come through before buying a parking pass.

Patrick Reagan, an economics major and SGA senator, is a part of the University Improvements Committee as well as the Finance Committee. Both committees are teaming up to draft the resolution to extend the grace period to Sept. 1.

Though the resolution is not yet written, Reagan says that informal discussions regarding the matter have been happening for a couple weeks.

“It’s something student government has looked into in the past and we’ve tried to work on,” Reagan said. “But this year we really want to make a big push to get a resolution passed concerning that.”

While Reagan hopes for the resolution to take effect either next semester or in fall 2015, he acknowledges the fact of NKU’s status as a commuter campus plays a big part in traffic and parking problems.

“A large majority of our students commute, and especially in prime times like mid-morning and mid-afternoon when people are getting…to and leaving from class, that’s obviously going to cause some traffic,” Reagan said.

Dan Paris, a freshman graphic design major, received his parking pass on time. Nonetheless, he does not have a problem with giving others a bit more time to buy a pass.

“If someone needs a parking pass and they don’t have the money right now, I’m all for it, just extend it a little bit,” Paris said.

Chris Cole, director of marketing and communications at NKU, says there is a process for students on financial aid to obtain money for a parking pass.

“The university has a process by which, if you’re getting financial aid you can receive what’s called a ‘book advance’ and that’s up to $750 that you can get before you receive your financial aid check,” Cole said. He added that students might not realize they can use book advance money to pay for a parking pass.

Andy Meeks, director of Business Operations and Auxiliary Services says he is open to working with the SGA on this pending resolution.

“I suspect we’ll just kind of jump on it and see what we can come up with,” Meeks said.

Meeks says if the measure is passed, a Fall 2015 implementation is the most likely scenario.

“Once I see the resolution and make sure that I understand everything they want me to try to address, it’ll take a bit to cover all the bases,” Meeks said.

Reagan said that the parking issue at NKU cannot be solved overnight, but he believes the SGA legislation can improve the situation.

“No university can get everything concerning parking 100 percent perfect,” Reagan said. “But if can we make as much progress as we need I think that’s what we should be doing.”