Ticket system malfunctions
Bailey Singletary
Students have had problems with parking issues since the day they arrived on campus. Most of us know the feeling of parking somewhere we know we shouldn’t, and most of us know the feeling of walking to our cars and finding a yellow envelope under the windshield wiper for something as small as breathing wrong.
There are also days when we park in the wrong spot for one class, hoping to get away with it. You think you got away with it until you check your MSU account and see that you got a ticket fine. You’re so confused and don’t remember ever getting a ticket, but you did. What is going on in this situation? Is there a flaw in the computer?
Well, I have the answer to this problem. There is a group that has been running around campus taking tickets off people’s windshields. Not only is this a cruel and immature joke, it ruins the chance of a student being able to appeal his or her ticket. Rumor has it that these people are mostly men who take tickets from any car, whether they know the owner of the vehicle or not. What pleasure do they get from this?
First, they refer to themselves as “ticket bandits.” Bandits? Come on, you can think of something a little better than that. Secondly, have these “bandits” had a ticket stolen yet? I would almost guarantee that they would be angry if they checked their accounts.
How can the school prevent things like this from happening? The school could send an automatic e-mail to a person’s account explaining that a ticket was given to them, where it was given and what day it was given. The actual ticket could still be put on the car, but an e-mail sent with it. All of our information is on our decal anyway, so it probably wouldn’t be that difficult to get an e-mail sent out.
Another idea would be to completely get rid of zone parking. Apparently, the zoning isn’t stopping people from going in other zones, and it’s frustrating not to be able to drive to another residence hall during the day for fear of getting a ticket. Although this idea might be difficult to accomplish, especially for commuter students, it could be done. Faculty parking could remain off limits, but as much as students pay for college, we should be able to park where we please.
We don’t have to worry about parking two weeks from now. Unfortunately, there will be new problems with parking next year.