LETTER: Parking needs rethinking

Editor,

I am writing about the need for a USU parking policy change. Here’s the situation: I try to register for classes and cannot due to a parking hold on my account. Normally, that wouldn’t be an issue, except that I didn’t know about it until the morning I tried to register. There I am sitting in front of my computer for well over an hour trying to log on to the QUAD.

When I finally get through, the computer informs me that I cannot register. I called the parking office to see what the deal was, and all I am told is that I must have lost the ticket. Here’s the problem, I was supposedly ticketed in June. I was here in June for SOAR. I properly displayed my parking pass and parked in the lot that I was informed would be OK. When I went to leave the next day, there was no parking ticket stuck on the driver’s side windshield. Not realizing there was an issue, I didn’t see any reason to pay a fine.

The point of all of this is such: I feel that there should be at least some leniency toward new students and the parking policy, especially in the summer when I was just visiting. That is not a good way to retain students. The issue is the ticket notification policy. Had I known about the ticket I would have contended it much sooner. The lady at the parking office told me they can’t guarantee I’ll get the ticket, because someone may have taken it off of my window. My question is: What guarantee is there that it was even put there? My second question is: If, when I went to buy my parking pass for the semester, the attendant could tell I had an unpaid fine from three months ago, why was I not informed? I hope that when a student is ticketed, he should be given the ticket on the windshield, as an extra step, if the student doesn’t respond in a timely manner, there should be a follow-up via e-mail, phone or mail.

Sean Jaixen