BATON ROUGE - Students navigating their first week back on campus at LSU are calling the parking situation a "disaster" and urging school leaders to improve.

Sarah Kate Green, a sophomore studying Mass Communications and Political Science reached out to 2 On Your Side after she missed class due to inadequate parking. She reached out to LSU for help and guidance.

"The only acknowledgement they seem to give is an email telling us they're 'sorry for the inconvenience,'" said Green.

On Tuesday, Green left her home 10 minutes from campus and spent the better part of her morning driving around the commuter parking lots looking for a space. She didn't find one until 11:40 a.m.

"I tried to plan ahead for parking and traffic, I left an hour early, but that wasn't enough time," she said.

Green is one of 9,469 LSU commuter students who paid $182 for a commuter parking permit. There are approximately 5,450 commuter parking spots. Those same parking spots are also available to faculty and staff. The solution to the problem: a waiting list. 

It appears the scramble to find a spot could become more dire. LSU Parking reports it currently has 2,270 names on the commuter permit waiting list. It also notes that there are 700 pending waitlist offers to students for a chance to upgrade to a commuter permit, and additional offers will be made in the following week. The number of Commuter permits sold is expected to reach 11,000.

"They are expecting us to pay so much money for a parking pass and not even guaranteeing us a spot," said Green.

Commuter permits sold within the same time frames in 2019: 13,568; 2023: 12,451; and 2024: 12,967.

LSU has lost about 900 parking spaces due to the new construction of academic buildings and student housing across from the Business School on South Quad Drive. That parking crunch could be felt for the next two years while construction is ongoing, or longer. Only 425 Commuter spaces will be returned following construction. 

"We not only need dorms, we need parking lots too because you're taking in thousands of students and growing those classes every year, but not giving us the space to grow with it," said Green.

LSU students are sounding off on social media. One student on TikTok commented, "You sold out of parking passes the first two days, are you serious?" Another student asked, "Where do you want me to park if I don't have a parking pass?"

Students who don't have time to circle the lots and wait for a parking spot are parking on the grass or along the curb. They're returning to their vehicles to find a citation or boot. Some aren't returning to a vehicle at all because it's been towed. Parking enforcement appears to be providing no grace period.

"There's literally nowhere else for them to park to go to class," said Green.

LSU Parking identifies 16,278 student parking spaces around campus divided by designated permits for purchase. Lots are separated by Faculty/Staff, Commuter, Greek, Law, Visitor, Union Square Parking, and Resident Zones.

LSU says the future of parking at LSU is Park & Geaux, where students park off-site and are bused in. There are several Park & Geaux areas, the main area at Tiger Park East and Skip Bertman West. So far, LSU Parking has sold 3,768 Park & Geaux permits for 2,275 parking spots. Commuter Permit holders are also able to park in Park & Geaux permitted lots. Even this concept is going through an adjustment period.

"I was behind a Tiger Trails, and it stopped at the bus stop. There were probably 25 kids waiting; told them, 'Hey, the bus is full,' and left them there," said Green.

LSU says that any permit type excluding Park & Geaux is valid in X lots and there are approximately 3,700 spaces available. There's also a Mobility Hub coming in Fall 2026. The Mobility Hub will not exceed $10 million and is meant to provide security, paving, and signage to help mobility on campus. Additional amenities will include air conditioned rooms, restrooms, WiFi, as well as security cameras and additional lighting. 

Thankfully, Green found a parking spot on Wednesday and Thursday and arrived to class on time. Some of her fellow students haven't been as lucky.

LSU says it recognizes the frustration of parking challenges and is actively working on long-term solutions. That includes extended shuttle hours, added stops at Lockett and Cox Auditorium, two shuttles per route to reduce waiting times, and security at Park & Geaux locations for safety. 

This week the university was unable to provide an estimate for Fall 2025 enrollment. The "Enrollment at a Glance" page should be updated with the Fall 2025 enrollment figures in the next couple of weeks. In Spring 2025, LSU had 34,737 on-campus students enrolled.

As noted at the May 2020 Board of Supervisors meeting, the only other option to increase parking availability on campus would be construction of parking garages. Data showed then that parking garages cost about $25,000 per parking space to build. This additional cost translated to parking permit costs would not be feasible. The Park & Geaux project allows for the expansion of parking options at a lower cost.