Recently, I became a member of the parking ticket fraternity of Elon University. The one who inducted me was probably the same one who inducted many other students here, for his only job is to assign parking tickets. While I realize that a parking ticket is not a huge deal, there are certain circumstances of this particular incident that alarm me.
First, let me backtrack and give you the situation. I was forced to park on campus for about five minutes as I was driving to the library to pick up audio CDs, since ESTV had none left. I parked in a visitors spot for literally four minutes, with no parking sticker on my car, and received a ticket at the halfway point of my criminal act, two minutes after I entered the library and two minutes before I came out.
I immediately went to Campus Police to argue the ticket. I told them that I had parked in a visitor’s spot with no parking sticker on my car, thus inferring I am a visitor. I was then told I am not a visitor and cannot park on campus, even for four minutes, until after 5 p.m.
Needless to say, I was a little upset, as $50 for a parking ticket is a little . . . expensive. Just a note: New York City parking tickets are $65. The city has 8.1 million residents – Elon has 5,000. It might be harder to find a parking spot there, but that’s just my guess.
Now, I find it only justifiable that I point my anger at the man who gave me this ticket and the company of which he works for. I decided my problem is not that this man’s only job is to hunt down criminals like any police officer – his job is to hunt down minor criminals for parking infractions. There are still real criminals roaming the campus of Elon, as we have witnessed from the increase of reported incidents this year.
Personally, I have had more than $2,500 worth of equipment stolen while at Elon (an iPod, laptop and DVDs).
Yet, instead of hiring an additional officer who could roam the campus on foot to protect students, we have an officer who roams in a car, causing students more grief than anything else.
I find it preposterous that I received a parking ticket in four minutes, yet the police officers who lived less than 20 feet from me when I was robbed still have no clue where my laptop is. As a student who paid $27,291 this year, I shouldn’t have to pay a $50 dollar fine. My money could be better spent protecting myself and other students rather than being used to pay more money to fund a salary that will only give students more parking tickets.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go pay my $50 parking fine, so that I can pay my $70 graduation fee, so that I can graduate, so I can move to NYC and never drive again.
-Kelson Fagan, ‘07
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