The UCI Chancellor, Howard Gillman met with President Napolitano on Tuesday, March 28th to discuss student concerns of the costly parking permits on campus.

After gaining approval from the UC Board of Regents, Chancellor Gilman has worked in collaboration with ASUCI to institute new rules eliminating all on campus parking fees, for spring quarter 2017.

streaks | long exposure outside of the student center, taking a break from finals study A post shared by Benedict Chua (@bentograph) on Mar 19, 2017 at 9:44pm PDT

In an issued statement, Chancellor Howard Gillman said: “It has come to my attention that a vast majority of our students at the Univerity of California, Irvine struggle with money. In order to alleviate the cost of tuition and other expenses, I along with your fellow students at ASUCI have come to an agreement to eliminate parking rates altogether. We hope that students may come to the University of California, Irvine to focus solely on education and all the activities this campus has to offer.”

Several students were overjoyed after hearing about the chancellor’s decision. One student, Daria Belka says she feels “as if UCI really cared about students. As of right now, the parking is so expensive I wonder if our public universities are secretly extreme capitalist.”

She also added that “the next thing for them would be to finally start offering the classes I am interested in.”

While parking rates will now be free there is no word on where UCI will redirect their fees in order to maintain the parking structures on campus.

All students that purchased a parking permit for spring break will be reimbursed in two to three business days. To claim your refund, students should email [email protected] with the subject line ‘April 1st Parking refund’.

But before you get too excited, check the date ? .

@thesandymar