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Parking & Parking Tickets

The Student Services Center is the location to pick up or purchase annual or semester parking permits for the Drake lots for all faculty, staff, and students. If you are unsure which parking pass to purchase, please review the parking lots on the campus map.

Parking permits are available for sale online in the myDrake portal, and can be picked up at the Student Services front desk.

Parking permits can be denied to students, faculty, contract employees, or staff who have unpaid fines.

How to Purchase

  • Order through myDrake and pay via credit/debit/ACH.  Passes can be picked-up in the Student Services Center when convenient.
  • Faculty and Staff can utilize a payroll deduct option for the payment of their permits.

Short Term Parking

Short-term passes are also available for online purchase if an annual or semester permit is not needed.  Click on one of the links below to purchase a short-term pass. 

Guest Parking

  • Drake University requires a parking permit to park in Drake parking lots. Visitors can purchase a Daily Commuter Pass or a Daily Residential Pass (overnight - links posted above). 
  • There is a parking meter system in the two Visitor Lots on campus. You may use that system, or guest passes can be printed ahead of your visit and placed on the dashboard of your car. Hours for any commuter lot are 6am - 2am. Please do not park in a commuter lot overnight.
  • Visitors needing to park overnight should purchase a Daily Residential Pass, and should park in the residential lots on campus. These lots allow for 24/7 parking.
  • The Fine Arts parking lot (lot #1) does not require a permit after 4:30 pm, and could be utilized for guest parking.
  • There are options for free parking on the streets around most of the campus.  Please take note of any time limits and city regulations that are posted.

Vehicle Updates

If you get a new car, license plate, paint job, or have any other details you want to update on your vehicle registration, please feel free to submit this form to let us know!

Additional Campus Parking Information

You can find parking regulations, forms, and additional parking information on the Department of Public Safety website. Please note that refunds for parking passes are not available after the add/drop period of the fall or spring semesters, and lost permits are not replaced free of charge. 

Premium Lot Passholders (red and yellow)

There will be dates that premium lots (particularly Olmsted Yellow Lot) will be closed for pre-scheduled campus events. On the dates premium lots are closed, parking permits will be honored in an exterior commuter lot (purple or orange).

Parking Tickets and Fines

Tickets issued by the Department of Public Safety can be paid in the Student Services Center with debit card, credit card, or Bulldog Bucks. If possible, bring the ticket or your license plate number to the office to properly record payment. You can also send checks to:

Student Services Center
2507 University Ave, Des Moines, IA 50311 

We email invoices for citation payments whenever possible. If you do not receive an emailed invoice for your citation, you can reach out to us (providing us with your license plate number to look up your citation) at studentservices@drake.edu.  We can then email you an invoice to allow you to pay your citation online.  

Failure to pay a fine within 30 days from the date the ticket is issued will result in an additional late fine of $15. After 30 days, unpaid fines will be treated as any other past due obligation to the University and may result in withholding of transcripts and denial of permission to subsequently register for any classes.

If you wish to appeal a citation, you may do so on this online form.