Kent State Parking Services writes about 300 parking tickets per day Monday through Thursday and about 100 per day Friday through Sunday.

Parking Services manager Larry Emling points out the most important part of parking tickets: The ticket fines escalate.

“Tickets one and two are $15, three through eight are $35 and nine and above go to $50,” he said. “At nine and above, your vehicle also gets tagged as a frequent violator, meaning that any future violations in that academic year allows the vehicle to be both ticketed and booted.”

It costs $100 to get a boot removed, but booting doesn’t happen too often.

“Quite honestly, it happens more in the spring than in the fall because people tend to accumulate tickets over the course of the year,” Emling said. “Once a car gets its ninth ticket, we typically put an orange warning sticker on the vehicle that says the car is now considered a frequent violator, which basically means ‘park legally or else.’”

Frequent violators may also be at risk of having their vehicle towed.

“If you get booted a third time,” he said, “we make you come in and sign a form indicating that from now on you’re going to get towed, and towing is done by a private company and you’re on your own.”

Many students who frequently receive tickets pay the fine, but continue to park illegally.

“Just because somebody can afford to get tickets,” Emling said, “doesn’t mean we want them to continue to park in violation because they’re taking away a spot from a permit holder and abusing the system. Most people try to comply, but there’s always a small percentage that take their chances and park at their own risk, and those are the ones that usually end up getting booted.”

There are alternative ways of obtaining a parking pass. Several off-campus churches near the Northeast corner of campus offer student parking in their lots.

One of these churches, the United Methodist Church of Kent, offers parking passes for students for $80 a semester, which is slightly cheaper than a lot of the on-campus parking passes.

“Our parking passes are not spot-specific, so if you have a pass, you can park anywhere in the lot,” said Adam Alderson, Business Manager of the United Methodist Church.

Most students who buy parking permits in these lots, have most of their classes in that corner of campus.

Parking availability on campus also largely depends on one’s major and where they have classes.

“If you’re a biology student and your classes are on that side of campus, parking is more available and less in demand,” Emling said. “We can always get people permits, but is it always as close as they want to be? Probably not.”

Nate Burtzlaff is the grad students and research and transportation reporter. Contact him at [email protected].