With a new look and a new system, Cerritos College is changing the way students and faculty adapt to parking.

Effective as of this semester, Cerritos College parking permits will no longer come in the form of mirror hangers. Instead, permits will now come in the form of decals that can be placed on the inside of a car windshield.

The decals are square with a reflective design with a picture of the Cerritos College library in the background and can be placed anywhere on the windshield. The change was made possible thanks to the cooperation from Credential Solutions, a company that provides transcripts to Cerritos, according to Cerritos College Chief of police Richard Bukowiecki.

According to Bukowiecki, one of the main reasons for the change was to increase convienience.

“We were trying to make a more convienient way for the students to get their permits if they wanted to order them online,” Bukowiecki said.

Bukowiecki went on to mention that the change also lessens the workload for campus police as well as for the admissions office.

“It’s cost-effective in that admissions and records don’t have to utilize a lot of man-power to mail out the permits,” Bukowiecki said, as well as mentioning that due to the number of tasks his dispatcher had to complete, it would become tedious to add issuing permits to the list of things to do with the previous system.

“It’s ineffiecient in that we might sell a permit one day and it might not get into the system for five to seven days.” Bukowiecki said, “And when you have a student that buys a permit, and then two days later realizes they can’t get into their class, they want a refund.”

When permits are bought online, the person buying it automatically receives a printout of a temporary permit, which they can use until the actual permit arrives in the mail. Despite the change in design and system, permits can still be purchased through admissions and records or from campus police for the same price of $35 for students and $50 for staff and faculty. However, when purchasing online, a $3.25 shipping and handling fee will be charged.

Other new requirements to purchase a permit now include having to give information regarding the car the permit is being purchased for, such as the car’s make, model, color, license plate number and the state the car is registered in.

The new change in the system seems to have not affected students’ decisions to purchase the permits, especially for Electrical Engineering major Daniel Vargas. “I’ll still buy them.” Vargas said, “You have to, or else they’ll catch you.” 

However, some students prefer the previous permit system. Undecided major James Camacho said, “I like it, but I like the ones you could hook on your mirror better.”