Hundreds of students came out empty handed after the first parking pass distribution of the 2006 football season last week.

According to Zach Adams, Student Senate president, athletics did not distribute passes in a way to benefit as many students as possible.

“Generally, the parking passes for students are distributed in between two and three hours,” Adams said. “Due to a high number of students that showed up at 10 a.m., along with a miscommunication with athletics, all the passes were distributed by 11 a.m.”

Only one parking pass is allotted per student ID and valid ticket on a first come, first serve basis. Adams said the athletics department unnecessarily relaxed the rules for last Saturday’s game.

“The staff that athletics hired to distribute the parking passes was not well informed on the process. There were some cases where students received more parking passes than they had student IDs for,” he said. “I spoke with athletics to insure that this does not happen in any future parking pass distribution.”

Adam Compton, student body treasurer, said athletics turned him away after he arrived at Reynolds Coliseum at 11:15 a.m. Thursday.

“I was in a line with about 200 people who didn’t get passes,Ó Compton said.

Dick Christy, assistant athletic director for external operations, said there were concerns about last week’s quick parking pass distribution, but cited fan excitement as the cause.

He said the system for obtaining the parking permits is electronic.

“We actually do it with a barcode scanner,” he said. “There was no issue as far as staffing.”

Christy said that based on the number of available parking spaces in the fairground lots, one parking permit is available for every four student tickets.

“If 11 of your friends are in class and they give you their tickets and they are legit, you would have three parking passes,” he said.

Regardless of the cause for the accelerated distribution, students said that promptness is key for acquiring a parking pass. Athletics will distribute passes for Saturday’s game against Akron starting at 10 a.m. today at Reynolds.

Erika Knox, a freshman in the First Year College, said she plans to be first in line for a pass.

“I came to Reynolds at 11:30 a.m. last week expecting to get a parking pass — I was turned away,” she said. “Tomorrow I am planning on waiting at the door before 10 a.m. so I can be sure and get one.”

Ryan Collier, a freshman in professional golf management, said he is also concerned about being at the front of the line.

“Although last week’s game versus Appalachian State was highly anticipated and the game against Akron won’t create as much of hype amongst the students, I still want to make sure I get a parking permit,” he said. “I have even thought about camping out.”