Violation crack-downs needed
by Tim Suda
Issue date: 4/20/09 Section: Opinion
There has been a lot of talk about the recent enforcement of parking rules among students. Most of the talk seems to be complaints that students are getting ticketed or booted. I've heard students complain to faculty, staff and other students about getting a ticket or nearly being late to class because of these enforcements. I believe that it is time for these students to stop whining and grow up.
There is an old cliché that will make one of my professors cringe but needs to be said: "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime."
These parking rules have been official for a long time.
According to the student handbook, students, whether resident or commuter, are required to get a parking permit for their car.
Also in the student handbook, it says that students can be charged $25 for registering their vehicle. In my three years spent at Piedmont, I have never once heard of someone being charged for a parking permit. My question then is: why do so many students not get one?
There are multiple answers to that question: those students are lazy, they don't care or they want to try and pose as a visitor to break the parking rules. From the complaints that I have heard recently, the latter seems to be the most popular. And yet, some students feel like they shouldn't get in trouble. They think the $25 fine is "not right." What these people don't realize is that fine could be much higher.
A few weeks ago, the student affairs office began sending out e-mails that said campus police would be cracking down on parking violators. There has been plenty of warning and it is not like the rules were just recently made up. It is not hard to park in your assigned lots. There is more than enough parking on this campus, especially if everyone parks where they should.
I believe that many students think that since these rules weren't as harshly enforced before that they should be let off the hook now. I feel that this shows how self-centered some of our students are. I also think that campus police should begin writing more tickets to these violators.
I have to abdicate that I have broken the rules for parking more than my fair share of times. I've also received multiple citations for those violations. I'm not upset that I got those citations; I knew the punishment if I were to get caught.
The way the old model worked, I got one, maybe two tickets per semester. I justified my violations by deciding that $25 to $50 was like buying a special parking permit for those lots I used. I now believe that the fines for parking violations should be raised, especially for parking in handicapped spaces. I also believe that the rules should be more strictly enforced.
There is an old cliché that will make one of my professors cringe but needs to be said: "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime."
These parking rules have been official for a long time.
According to the student handbook, students, whether resident or commuter, are required to get a parking permit for their car.
Also in the student handbook, it says that students can be charged $25 for registering their vehicle. In my three years spent at Piedmont, I have never once heard of someone being charged for a parking permit. My question then is: why do so many students not get one?
There are multiple answers to that question: those students are lazy, they don't care or they want to try and pose as a visitor to break the parking rules. From the complaints that I have heard recently, the latter seems to be the most popular. And yet, some students feel like they shouldn't get in trouble. They think the $25 fine is "not right." What these people don't realize is that fine could be much higher.
A few weeks ago, the student affairs office began sending out e-mails that said campus police would be cracking down on parking violators. There has been plenty of warning and it is not like the rules were just recently made up. It is not hard to park in your assigned lots. There is more than enough parking on this campus, especially if everyone parks where they should.
I believe that many students think that since these rules weren't as harshly enforced before that they should be let off the hook now. I feel that this shows how self-centered some of our students are. I also think that campus police should begin writing more tickets to these violators.
I have to abdicate that I have broken the rules for parking more than my fair share of times. I've also received multiple citations for those violations. I'm not upset that I got those citations; I knew the punishment if I were to get caught.
The way the old model worked, I got one, maybe two tickets per semester. I justified my violations by deciding that $25 to $50 was like buying a special parking permit for those lots I used. I now believe that the fines for parking violations should be raised, especially for parking in handicapped spaces. I also believe that the rules should be more strictly enforced.
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