Every day, silver coins are dropped into the parking meters alongside several different avenues of campus. Students park their cars, quickly feed the meter and then bustle off to class.

But rarely do students stop to ask: Where is all this money going? Who collects all the money that is dumped into this meter?

“The money goes into parking and transportation revenue and funds the [parking] department,” said Gwen Bolden, the University of Oregon’s director of parking and transportation. “[The department of parking and transportation] does not get any general fees from the general university money.” The money for the department comes solely from permits, citations, meter collection and special event parking.

The department of transportation was created as recently as 2013, the first year for which there was a line item for it in the annual UO budget report. Previously, the department was a part of the UOPD.

According to Paula Ellison, office manager of the department of transportation, a “fairly large expenditure” for the department is paying the UOPD for support services involving accounting, budgeting and human resources.

For the fiscal year of 2013, the department of transportation collected $1.8 million, down from the $2.7 million that was collected in 2012.

The coin-only meters on University Street and in sporadic lots near Franklin Boulevard are the only metered spots that fund the UO department of transportation. Also the pay-to-park lots, such as the ones connected to the EMU and Straub Hall, collect revenue for the university. Epark meters, probably best known to students as the ones you can use bank cards with, are controlled by the city of Eugene. Despite their locations inside and around campus, revenue from those does not go the UO.

The Columbia garage, which opened in May 2011, also collects money for the department, although it is also one of the departments continuing expenditures, according to Ellison.

Staff salaries for the department, any new buildings for parking, and transportation buildings are funded through these avenues.

There are several lots and spaces around campus available to those with a UO parking permit. For students, that’s $125 a term. For a full year, the price is $300. Faculty pay more, with a $150 price tag for a term of parking on campus, and $384 a year, according to the UO parking website. Faculty may choose to have this fee immediately deducted from their salary.

According to the UO campus planning and real estate department, 84 percent of students, faculty and staff do not have a parking permit. According to the same survey, which collected responses from 1,240 people, 12 percent of students and 45 percent of staff and faculty drive to campus alone.

Emma Hoover, junior at the UO parks her car on campus often. She lives further off campus than is walkable. Hoover typically parks her car in the two-hour slots around campus, which are monitored by the city of Eugene. She mostly finds herself using meters for quick trips to campus.

Last term however, Hoover received several parking citations, and her car was booted for lack of repayment of citations. Hoover says it was because of an “assimilation of tickets that I didn’t know about,” and Hoover had to attend court to resolve the issue.

Hoover says that she feels as though the parking on campus is “pretty inconvenient.” Hoover notes that she had a parking permit in previous years, but and the expense of a permit can be a major deterrent for students.

Some would just like to see some type of change to make things easier. Ellison thinks the next step is to bring the UO’s parking into the technology age.

“I am just in love with computers and apps and I’m addicted to my iPhone, and I think that a lot of students are the same way. I would love to have better apps for students to find better parking, whether it be in lots or meters,” Ellison said.

Ellison believes it would also be useful to have a way that students can pay parking through an app on their phone. “I think it’s easier when you can do things on your phone.” And it would be “easier to monitor how much you’re spending.”

Some students, such as Hoover, would like to see the money being fed into the meters “used for development for new parking areas.”

Bolden is responsible for maintenance and registration for vehicles and their lots, as well as tasks involving bicycles and pedestrians. She said this department is always working on ways that they can increase parking allocation for bicycles, and how to make campus more open and welcoming for pedestrians.