Parking on this campus is horrendous; that’s a given and it’s something we have to deal with as students. However, it is ridiculous when the university decides to hand out parking tickets like candy on Halloween, despite a student following all of the rules and paying for a decal.

I paid $230 for an off-campus student decal before the semester started.

I got a hanging decal because sometimes I drive a different car to class.

One day I parked in Airline Garage, which is an all-university parking garage, on the second floor, which is not reserved for faculty or staff. I came out to find a ticket on my windsheild.

It turns out my decal had fallen from my review mirror. I appealed the ticket online thinking that it would easily be dismissed- I could prove I bought a student decal before the semester started, I still had the reciept. I could also prove I was in student parking because the ticket said where I had been parked.

My appeal was denied. It is absolutely appalling that because the decal accidently fell, the university would force students to pay to park in the lots for which they already paid.

I completely understand writing the ticket; there was no proof that I had paid to park there.However, after I demonstrated that I had already paid an exorbitant amount of money to fight for a limited amount of parking spaces, the Park n’ Pony office should have been more than willing to accept my explanation.

Tuition is expensive, books are expensive, the list goes on and on and so could I.

So a warning to students who have already paid to park on our overcrowded campus: Don’t let your parking tag fall or you’ll have to pay again.

About the writer:

Courtney Sartor is a journalism and political science major. She can be reached at [email protected].