Jessica Baldwin

Staff Writer

September 18, 2009

Raise in Parking Tickets

Starting this semester, the price for a standard citation on the Waynesburg University

Campus doubled. Last year, the price for a standard citation was $5, and now the price

has risen to $10.

“We gave out a lot of citations last year,” said Director of Public Safety, Michael

Humiston. “Students treated the parking tickets like a regular parking fee, and they would

rather pay the $5 and park illegally then look for a different spot. The citation prices were

raised, as a deterrent to get the students to pay their parking tickets.”

A standard citation on campus includes: parking without a decal, parking in residence lots

if you are a commuter, parking in commuter lots if you are a resident, and students

parking in the faculty parking lot located behind Franklin. Students who park in handicap

spots are charged a $50 fine and those who park in a fire lane will be charged $25.

“Considering all of the citations that were given out last year, I think that the raise in

prices is a great way to get students to pay their tickets, and to stop parking illegally,”

said security officer Dale Campbell.

The parking tickets must be paid within 48 hours or the price of the citation doubles.

Furthermore, if the student does not move out of the illegal spot, they will continue

receiving tickets.

“I cannot afford to pay $10 every time that I am parked in an illegal space on campus,”

said junior nursing student Charnele Zukauckas. “With the raise in price, I’ll just have to

look harder for a parking spot”

During the first two weeks of school, security has not issued citations, but has put

florescent orange flyers on illegally parked cars on campus as a warning to the students.

“We use flyers for the first two weeks for students that do not know the policy,” said

Humiston. “But the citations are coming.”

Also, last year the Security Office was able to void citations, but this year they are

unable to do so.

“We voided a lot of citations last year, because we understand that there are problems

with multiple vehicles and limited parking spaces,” said Humiston. “This year we are

trying to stay away from that.”

A significant amount of money was lost lat year due to voided tickets.

Forensic Science Major, Melissa Jack, was surprised with the decision to no longer void

tickets.

“It is surprising because last year the citations I received were voided, but because they

longer void tickets, I going to take parking on campus more seriously.”

Although the Security Office no longer voids tickets, students can still protest the citation

they receive.

“Students can protest the citation they received on campus, but they have to have a pretty

good excuse,” said Humiston.

The Security office is now implementing their system of logging citations to make it

work more efficiently. “We log all citations into the computer and print out what we call

the ‘hot sheet’ of students who have unpaid tickets,” said Humiston. “If you have unpaid

tickets the university will hold your grades and your diploma.”