With the University budget in its current fragile state, departments are right to pursue policy changes that will increase revenue. As The Cavalier Daily reported on February 20, the University Department of Parking and Transportation is altering its response to individuals who are unable or unwilling to pay their hourly parking charges when they exit a parking garage by issuing $20 citations to patrons who fail to pay. While this fairly addresses the problem of people not paying for parking, there are issues still to be resolved with this new policy.
Instead of sending a bill for a small amount to patrons who did not pay when exiting a parking facility, the new method gives Parking and Transportation a more practical solution to this problem. The old system was impractical: Mailing out many bills for just a few dollars each was a waste of time, energy and money. Anecdotal evidence indicates that many violators never actually received their bills, most likely because Parking and Transportation realized the futility of sending out bills for such tiny amounts. Citing patrons with $20 fines gives them greater incentive to pay when they leave, as it should.
Valid concerns, however, remain. Parking and Transportation’s use of the citation system means that the fee is waived for first-time offenders and the citation serves as a warning. Receiving a warning citation for leaving the garage without paying counts as a parking violation warning, so students must pay in full any parking tickets they receive in the same year. Parking tickets that cost from $35 to $45 are an even greater burden than a $20 fine. The two types of citations should not be equivalent, because parking tickets are usually the result of an intentional decision while it is unlikely that someone would enter the parking garage with the intent not to pay when leaving. Forgetting your wallet when you make a trip to Newcomb should not be punishable to the same degree as knowingly parking in a reserved space.
Another issue is the handling of non-University versus University offenders. Parking and Transportation Director Rebecca White said the new policy is equitable because “the new approach will be applied to all garage patrons.” Locals and visitors, however, can more easily avoid paying a fine because they are outside the University system. Students will be blocked from class registration until fines are paid, making the burden of citations fall more heavily on students relative to other violators. While students should take responsibility for failing to pay for parking, the stiffness of the fine is far more likely to be felt by students because they use the University’s parking far more often than others and are more easily located.
To address this issue, Parking and Transportation should look to the Honor Committee. Honor Committee Chair Jess Huang stated in an e-mail interview that the Committee has in the past “worked with Parking and Transportation to allow students to be taken at their word and on their honor to pay for the accurate amount of time [they] were in the garage,” offering students a concrete benefit of the University’s community of trust. The Honor Committee’s Community Relations Committee has been developing a revised plan in light of Parking and Transportation’s new policy. Now that Parking and Transportation has delayed the implementation of the new policy, the two groups should work together to resurrect this valuable perk of the honor system.
Parking and Transportation must deal with the failure of patrons to pay for their time in parking facilities and clearly the previous billing system was ineffective. Citing individuals who are unable or unwilling to pay will serve as a deterrent and improve enforcement. Students, though, should not have to bear a disproportionate burden under the new policy.
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