Thanks to construction around campus stripping 1,200 parking spots from the asphalt, TCU announced in early April that “first-year students will not automatically be allowed to bring a car to campus.”
The school is in the midst of building a new residence hall and parking garage. The future residence hall is set to take the place of an existing parking lot. And the upcoming parking garage, which the school is also constructing atop a parking lot, will supplement the loss in spots — eventually. This means four lots (15, 28, 29, and 30) will be closed for the fall without any parking to supplement the loss.
The new parking garage isn’t expected to open until October 2026.
“You need to see ‘The Hunger Games,’ because then you’ll understand it,” Assistant Vice Chancellor of Public Safety Adrian Andrews told TCU 360 in April. “It’s going to be a little bit bananas.”
And with nearly 2,500 incoming freshmen at TCU, removing their ability to park on campus is an obvious solution.
According to TCU’s new “Parking Rules & Regulations,” a limited number of parking permit exemptions were made available for first-year residential students, who needed to apply during the month of June. Those who were selected should have been notified last week, according to TCU’s website. Such exemptions for obtaining a parking permit included medical and job-related reasons — though the school encouraged students to “utilize the numerous available on-campus jobs to negate the need for transportation.” In addition, students who choose to commute during the first year, which only accounts for 3% of students, according to Campus Reel, will also be exempt. TCU requires all students not living at home to reside on campus during their first two academic years.
While it is plainly a matter of arithmetic — there simply aren’t enough available spots to accommodate every student and faculty member, and as Greek life go, the freshmen naturally get the short end of the stick — this inconvenience is causing a headache for incoming students forced to navigate, well, navigation sans automobile.
“How are y’all going to get places? I can’t pay $180-$300 per week for uber just to get where I need to go (karate dojo, doctors’ appointments, and possibly work),” Reddit user MarcusAntonius27 sounded off in the TCU subreddit. “They didn’t warn us about this before we paid, and they really should’ve warned us about something this major or offered refunds on the $500 enrollment fee.”
One might brush this off as “first-world problems,” but the new policy is certainly forcing incoming students to make concessions concerning off-campus activities. That said, TCU does have a state-of-the-art rec center, health center, a solid shuttle service around campus, and Trinity Metro’s bus route 53 goes right through campus and into the heart of the Cultural District. And for those hoping to catch a flight home, may we recommend the TEXRail.
And for those freshmen who struck out on an exemption but still wish to bring cars, new options are emerging — for a fee, of course. Troy Kunkel, CEO of M25 Developments and TCU alum, created enough parking near campus to accommodate 160 students. But, he warns, spaces are filling up fast.
Truth is, this is nothing unique in the world of academia. Schools like Yale, Georgetown, Princeton, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and even Ohio State don’t allow freshmen — and in some cases, any student — living on campus to have cars. And those policies are permanent.
TCU will have to, temporarily, add its name to this list of esteemed universities. And Horned Frog freshmen will see an increase in their daily step count.