Selling more parking permits than spots?
September 5, 2011
Students run the risk of getting that familiar yellow ticket every day they park illegally on campus.
Whether they’re running late, feeling lazy or just chose to not purchase a parking pass, they gamble their money in lots designated to certain people with certain passes. They know the consequences; they just choose to ignore them.
And so tickets are distributed on the cars of many and the complaining continues.
By the numbers: parking permits
Emling admits Parking Services sells more parking permits than there are spots, but don’t freak out; he said there’s logic to it. Residence permits are sold on a one to one basis, staff permits on a 1.5 to one basis, and commuters on a 1.7 to one basis. They base this principle off of Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes versus Tuesday-Thursday classes. Not every Kent State student with a parking pass is on campus at the exact same time, Emling said.
“We ticket to get compliance,” says Larry Emling, manager of parking services. “Our commitment is to those people who bought a permit and who are trying to park legally,” Emling said, “so if you’re going to choose not to do that, there’s a consequence to that.”
But just how many of those tickets are snapped onto windshields of illegally parked students daily?
Of the $4 to $4.5 million parking services rakes in every fiscal year (July 1 to June 30), $750,000 comes from tickets. That’s a lot of yellow envelopes.
“The honor system unfortunately doesn’t work with parking,” added Emling. “We’ll ticket heavily the first few weeks to get people where they need to be, so if everyone goes where they need to be, they’ll find space.”
Courtney Kerrigan is a enterprise reporter for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].
