This year, The University of Tennessee honored Purple Heart veterans with a new parking permit that allows for unrestricted parking.
The Purple Heart parking permit allows student and faculty veterans with the award to park in any unrestricted parking spot on campus, increasing their access to locations around campus.
“When I first got into SGA last year for the 2017-2018, I decided I needed to do something for the veterans since we hadn’t had any representation in a while,” Stephen Branum, senior in political science, said. “I talked with Ms. Rogers, the veterans resource coordinator, and we were talking about it and it came about that we don’t do really much for the veterans here.”
The idea came to life after Branum went to a Home Depot and saw a parking spot with the Purple Heart warrior logo on it, reserved for the veterans.
Branum did extensive research, called every single SEC school and found that only four schools — Alabama, Florida, Texas A&M and Mississippi — had reserved parking spots or anything similar to honor their student and faculty veterans.
Originally Branum thought of creating a designated parking space for Purple Heart veterans near Hodges library but ultimately decided on the unrestricted parking pass.
“My proposal to begin with was two parking spots with the Purple Heart logo painted into it and it would be just right here in the parking lot behind the library, but when the parking people came down, they decided it would be easier if we just did that they can park in any lot, as long as it was unreserved,” Branum said.
Moira Bindner, communications and customer service manager for parking and transit services, explained how the idea for just one or two Purple Heart parking spaces was a challenge for parking and transit because the spots would not be anywhere close to the Veterans Resource Center.
“What we looked at, he wanted to acknowledge veterans’ service and the challenge for us was does it need to be a parking place at the library and logistically I think the other piece of it was that the parking space would have been up by the Hodges entrance on Melrose, but the Veterans Center is down off of Volunteer Blvd,” Bindner said. “So, it wouldn’t even be right in front of where the Veterans Center is. Also, we looked at the not practicality, but the reality of having a parking place for a Purple Heart veteran.”
Parking and Transit created the Purple Heart parking permit and gave out the first one out on July 25, 2018 to John Pontiff, senior in accounting. Currently, according to Branum, only three students have the parking permit at this time.
For Purple Heart veterans interested in obtaining the permit, they need to submit a DD-214 form to the Veterans Resource Center to indicate they are a Purple Heart veteran.
In addition to the student parking permit, visitors who are Purple Heart veterans can also request a free daily permit through the Veterans Center, allowing them to park anywhere on campus during their visit.
Though a parking permit is a small way to show respect and honor Purple Heart veterans, Branum hopes the permit is a way to give special privilege to ease the pain of those wounded.
“It’s nothing like a Medal of Honor, but you still got wounded in battle, you still got shot or stabbed or anything like that. So, what better way to kind of do that for them than give them that special privilege,” Branum said. “I mean, it’s something small, but if you’ve been shot and you’ve been wounded, you walk with a limp, you know walking an extra 100, 200 yards might be a little more painful.”
Bindner pointed out how this permit is important because the idea came from a student initiative that went through the SGA to help fellow students.
“This is also important because this came from a student and that’s again Vols help Vols. Even though Stephen Branum, I don’t think is a Purple Heart recipient, so he didn’t do it for himself. He did it for a fellow soldier,” Bindner said.
