Take a class, drop some tickets and boot the boot

It is pouring rain. It is cold and dark outside. You have just completed a long day of classes and organizational meetings. You want nothing more than to get home and drink something warm and watch some TV.

Your car is parked in the Airline Garage. As you approach your car you notice one thing. You got booted! Yes, your parking tickets finally caught up with you. Now you have to walk back to the SMU PD headquarters and scrounge up the $50 it takes to get the boot off and also walk back and wait for an officer to come remove the boot.

There is something wrong with this picture.

Did you not know where to park? Could you not find a parking space?

Whatever the case, you now have a ticket on your record for the year.

The Student Senate, as well as the SMU PD and Jim Caswell, VP of Student Affairs, have a solution. From 5-7 p.m. today in the Hughes-Trigg Forum, there will be a pilot program for a SMU parking education and safety course. It is a defensive driving class for SMU students.

If you have any parking tickets, you now have the opportunity to have up to 3 tickets completely abolished from your record. ( You can do this by signing up at Patterson Hall (SMU PD) or at the door.)

Though you do still have to pay the tickets, you can now avoid the boot. Currently it requires six tickets to get booted. If you take the course you now cannot get booted until after nine tickets. With this course you just saved yourself $75. You also avoid the chance for having your vehicle suspended.

Last fall, the Student Senate surveyed students and asked if you would be willing to take this course to avoid getting booted. You replied overwhelmingly with an almost 70 percent vote yes. We heard you loud and clear. So here it is.

We do not want students getting punished for not knowing where to park. The university should not profit from your ignorance.

At One Stop Shop, they give us a map and tell us to find where you can park. This is not enough. If you are entirely new to campus, no brochure is going to give you enough info on where you can and cannot park.

Though it is true that you still pay the tickets, the long-term goal for this program would be to have you avoid paying the tickets all together. This is why we need all of you who do not know where to park to go to Patterson Hall (SMU PD headquarters) and sign up or sign up at the door.

If you do know where to park and frequently “mispark” then you, too, have the chance to avoid the boot.

The more people that attend the better chance this program progresses and replaces paying tickets. And if you are tired of boots, let’s begin to kick the boot!