OU parking officials shared plans to increase commuter parking, respond to housing changes and upgrade faculty lot gates at an OU Staff Senate meeting Wednesday.  

Brian Holderread, vice president of OU Campus Operations, and Kris Glenn, director of Parking and Transportation Services, discussed parking and transportation updates starting in the fall and continuing in the next few years. 

“We’re going to have a master plan, and it’s going to be a living, breathing, actionable, not sit-on-a-shelf plan, because the university is growing at too rapid of a pace to not do something,” Holderread said. 

Fall 2026 plans

Holderread and Glenn said the department plans to expand commuter spaces in the Jenkins Avenue Parking Facility beginning in the fall 2026 semester. Holderread said the project will be “rightsizing” housing parking, meaning the transition of Traditions East from upperclassmen to first-year housing will ideally alleviate some parking congestion near the dorms and create additional commuter spots.

In response to a question about limiting or eliminating housing parking, Glenn said they are not considering plans.

“Our students are our customers and we're all here as overhead because the students are here, and so we're here to support them. With the Board of Regents requirement for first-years to live on (campus), we will just have to find them a place to park all times,” Holderread said. 

Parking officials presented plans to upgrade the gate system to various faculty and staff parking lots, including the lot behind Dale Hall. 

The current gates, they said, are about 15 years old and have not been working correctly, which has allowed drivers to enter those lots without the right credentials. 

“We are investing a significant amount of money and resources in a new gate system this summer, …” Glenn said. “That’s probably the biggest thing for faculty and staff that’s coming this fall.” 

The gates will be opened via Sooner Card, smartphone or window sticker. Staff permits will also be converted to digital license plate permits, applicable to multiple cars, although they cannot be parked on campus at the same time. Gates will still operate on the current schedule. 

Parking and Transportation Services’ final plan for the fall is to enhance and expand the Parkview lot on Lindsey and George streets across from the Duck Pond. 

“We are going to offer that as a low-cost option to students and employees,” Glenn said. “We’re still kind of working through what that looks like, but (we’re) working with facilities management and that team to put new parking blocks out there, stripe it, put down a nice aggregate and it’s going to be a much improved and enhanced parking option.”

Future plans

Holderread said the department brought in a parking consultant in November to review campus parking and develop a parking master plan. 

“I've been in this department for more than 15 years now, and we’ve never had that kind of strategic plan, long-term plan,” Glenn said.

Glenn said the plan will be updated as enrollment changes, but the department is preparing for further growth.

“We’ve really got to make a few adjustments to parking with the rapid growth we’ve continued to see with the incoming first-year class, …” Holderread said. “We have been asked to get to 40,000 students from the governor and what's coming from the state. So we've taken that and really been working on that extremely hard.” 

During  a meeting with the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education earlier this month, Gov. Kevin Stitt said in 2019 he asked OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. and former Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis to “grow our universities to 40,000 students."

Holderread said phase one of OU’s housing master plan is set to be finished this summer with the completion of South Building. Phase two of the plan, which includes the demolition of Walker Center and the construction of three new buildings on the east side of that site, is anticipated to begin over the summer. Holderread said all of these changes will impact parking. 

OU Marketing and Communications confirmed the demolition of Walker Center in an email to the Daily Thursday.

Holderread also said that a new engineering research building being looked at near Sarkeys Energy Center may also affect future parking plans. 

“We’re looking, probably starting later this year, beginning the next year, for where that project’s going to be, and so it will affect some parking over in that part of the campus,” Holderread said. “We recognize that.”

According to OU’s long-range facilities planning page, the Gallogly College of Engineering Master Plan includes a new research building located near the Engineering Quad, a new building on the south research campus and a renovation of Felgar Hall. These projects are expected to cost $105 million, with $80 million coming from state appropriations and the remaining funding from university and private funds.

Holderread also said they plan to add housing parking as new residence halls open and are considering additional lots and parking garages, although he said he likes that lots are more versatile. Holderread described the campus as a chessboard and said “every little piece and move you make affects the rest of the board.”

Holderread said parking lots are “nothing but future building sites.” As an example, he said that in 50 years it’s possible the Dale Hall parking lot will be the site of a new academic building.

“We’re also trying to be really smart about not only today and the growth we’re on, but the next generation to two generations, …” Holderread said. “I'm not for sure, but that's a good spot to keep on the chessboard as a very strategic move.”

Holderread said parking garages are more strategic for corners or edges of campus, or places where he doesn’t expect much expansion. 

He also added that parking garages are more expensive than lots, stating parking garage spaces cost $30,000 each compared to about $7,000 for each surface parking spot. 

Past initiatives 

Glenn said that over the last five to six years, Parking and Transportation Services has spent about $5 million to add about 775 spaces.

“I really want to point this out because while the student body has grown significantly over the last five to six years, we’ve really done our part to try to keep up with the growing student population and demand,” Glenn said. 

Glenn said many of those added spots have been student spaces and that Parking and Transportation Services has worked not to take any spaces away from faculty. Glenn also noted that despite those increases, parking rates have only increased one time in the last decade, in 2023. Commuter and housing permits cost $288. They cost $274 in 2022.Faculty and staff permits are $326 for one year. 

Holderread said their first priority is housing and commuter parking, followed by faculty and staff. 

“We understand it’s not convenient at times, but we continue to find there's always parking available around here,” Holderread said. “And it’s really because of the aggressive maneuvers we continue to take by adding parking spaces on campus.”

This story was edited by Macey Thaxton and Natalie Armour. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.