Last week, Mississippi State University announced new changes to parking for faculty and staff across the university.
The changes for employees include $1-per-day “flex parking,” automatic annual renewal and an earlier purchase date. The only change for student parking is the introduction of a fall-only permit.
These changes come months after parking was entirely overhauled in August 2025. The changes, which were publicly announced to the university via campus announcement on April 7, were first announced during the March 2026 faculty senate meeting.
Flex parking will replace the previous multi-zone parking passes that were available to employees for the 2025-2026 school year. There were only 100 passes available under the previous system, and they sold out quickly. Starting in the fall, employees will be able to park outside of their pass zones using flex parking. Flex permits will cost $1 per day and will be automatically charged to the employee’s Banner account.
To buy flex parking, employees will need to log in to the parking portal website to purchase a lot-specific credit. Only one flex permit can be purchased per day with a monthly limit of ten credits. The individual’s normal parking pass will remain valid on the day the credit is used.
Flex parking will be available in some lots only, and availability may change over time. Gated and residential lots will never be available for flex parking. Other lots may be available on some days but not on others, depending on how full they are.
Anna Webb, the director of administrative services at transportation, said that people should not expect to get the exact lot that they want every time they use a flex permit.
“It may not be in that exact zone that you want for that day, but maybe you can purchase it in a central location when you’re going to different buildings,” Webb said. “Just to get you a little closer.”
Additionally, benefits-eligible employees can purchase their 2026-2027 permits starting today, April 15. This change comes after issues with employees not being able to purchase their permits in a timely manner over the summer. Waiting lists were hours long, and many employees were unable to purchase the permits they needed for various reasons.
When the changes were announced to the faculty senate last month, Stacy Haynes, president of the Robert Holland Faculty Senate and professor in the department of sociology, cited these issues, amongst others, as reasons for the parking changes.
“Last year, people were on study abroad, people were traveling on vacation, you know, various things,” Haynes said during the monthly meeting, “and, so, the permits going on sale in July was really problematic for a lot of people.”
Parking passes for benefits-eligible employees will now also automatically renew year to year. Employees will still need to purchase their passes for the upcoming year, but they will automatically renew. Benefits-eligible employees who currently hold a pass in a specific zone will have a guaranteed spot in that zone again, so long as they purchase their 2026-2027 pass before July 22.
Gated parking pass credentials will also be automatically renewed starting next year. Employees with gated permits will no longer have to replace their window credentials every year, as they will automatically renew with the parking pass.
With the implementation of the automatic renewal system, employees will not need to log in to the parking website to buy their pass in future years unless they wish to change zones or cancel their pass. Starting next year, renewal emails will begin to go out in the spring and summer. If there are any price changes, they will be reflected in the renewal emails shared in the months leading up to the renewal cycle.
Webb said that many of the problems employees have had with parking will be alleviated by recent upgrades to the parking portal website, which enable features such as automatic renewals and daily parking passes.
“It’s just easier on everyone. You’re hoping your job is going to continue, so why not do it early? Get it out of the way and be done.” Webb said. “I will say, with technology, also, we had to get some things implemented software-wise that made that easy as well.”
All of these changes come after Parking Services received numerous employee complaints since the drastic changes last summer. Jack Elliott, the director of transportation, said the department is working hard to ensure employees’ parking needs are met.
“It just mainly came from after we rolled out everything last year and just listening to people,” Elliott said. “Some of the things came up from just listening to other ideas people had about what we could do for improvement and hearing some of the concerns from faculty.”
The only change affecting students will be the option to purchase fall-semester parking passes. Previously, passes could only be bought for the entire year or a prorated pass for the spring semester. This will allow students with fall graduations to save money and potentially make more passes available for sale in the spring.
Non-benefits-eligible staff, retirees and affiliates will not be eligible for automatically renewing passes. Individuals in this category may begin purchasing their parking passes for next year beginning on July 15.
Graduate students and residential students, including students living in Greek housing, may begin purchasing permits on July 22. Commuter passes will go on sale on July 29.
Current parking passes will expire on August 10, and all new passes will become active on August 11.
