UK Student Guide to Lexington

Big Blue Move-In runs across four days in August, with each student assigned an individual arrival appointment. The campus routes and unloading instructions come from UK directly, in the packet mailed to every student.

The UK move-in weekend guide covers the city side of those days: the drive in, the second vehicle, and food near campus.

Parking around the university runs on more than one system. Some residential streets sit inside city permit districts, other streets at the campus edge are controlled by the university, and which one applies changes block to block. A car left in the wrong place can end up ticketed or towed, and the office to call afterward depends on whose property it was on.

The parking near UK campus guide explains how each system works and who to contact.

Lexington collects residential trash on a weekday that depends on the address, not on the neighborhood name, so two rentals a few streets apart can land on different days. Guessing usually means missing a week.

The Lexington trash pickup lookup returns the exact collection day for a specific address.

Traffic around campus and on the main corridors builds at predictable times and at some less predictable ones. Checking the road before leaving costs less than sitting in it.

The live Lexington traffic cameras page carries snapshots from across the city, including a UK Campus group.

Lexington has a deeper restaurant scene than a campus radius suggests, and it changes often enough that a fixed list goes stale.

The Lexington restaurant rankings refresh daily, and this week in Lexington covers what is going on around town right now.

Running short on food is common enough at UK that the university runs several programs for it, and none of them require explaining yourself at length.

The Big Blue Pantry is UK's free campus food pantry, in Frazee Hall, Room 016. It is open to currently enrolled UK students, who need only bring a student ID, and it stocks groceries and personal care items with a limit of three visits per month. Its hours are set fresh each semester and are posted on UK's site. For an urgent need outside office hours, UK stocks emergency food lockers in the William T. Young Library, reserved through myUK.

Campus Kitchen at UK is a student-run group that puts out free to-go lunches each Wednesday during the semester. Pickup details and sign-ups run through BBNvolved.

The ONE Café is a community cafe UK lists among its basic-needs resources, serving low-cost meals to enrolled students. Its current price, location, and hours are on UK's site.

A first semester away from home is hard for a lot of people, and asking for help early is a normal thing to do rather than a last resort.

UK's starting point is TRACS, short for Triage, Referral, Assistance and Crisis Support. It is the front door for mental health support on campus, and it refers students on to the UK Counseling Center and other resources. TRACS is in the east wing of the Gatton Student Center and can be reached at 859-218-7227, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Outside those hours, UK lists an after-hours line at 1-844-BTR-MYND. For a mental health emergency, call or text 988. For any other emergency, call 911.