University of Memphis students are well aware of the stress involved with parking during busy class times. However, students tend to get even more frustrated when they receive tickets for parking violations.
"I really don't think it's fair because we pay enough for all this stuff as it is," said Tyone Amerson, a sophomore business major.
Sharon Barksdale, manager of parking services at The U of M, said that the parking services' "operating budget is not dependent upon fines."
Barksdale said that the fines are used for maintenance of the parking lots and for new construction. She said that fines are really more of a way to establish order.
"It helps to bring organization to what otherwise would be chaos," she said.
Several U of M students have complained about receiving citations for having expired tags, even though they are enrolled for the semester.
"I don't think it's fair for them to have to pay the fine," said Stacey Alexander, a senior health service administration major. "I think that after they show parking services the ticket, it should be dismissed."
According to Barksdale, the hangtags expire because the lifespan of the magnetic strip on the back only has a lifespan of three years, and the expiration date is printed on the back of each hangtag.
Barksdale said that the fines are in place for expired hangtags because "it is the responsibility of the student to ensure that their hangtag and stickers are current."
The fines for offenses vary and can all be found at the parking services' Web site http://bf.memphis.edu/parking.
Sometimes, however, a student may be violating two offenses at the same time. A former parking services employee, who wished to be unnamed, said that she was encouraged by other ticketing officers to go with the higher valued offense in those situations.
However, the former employee said that she was never encouraged by her supervisors to give higher fines, and according to Barksdale it is not encouraged.
The former employee also said that many of the ticketing officers she worked with were a little overzealous when giving fines, such as writing citations for parking in a no-parking zone.
"You'll get some people who if even your back tire is in the no-parking zone, you'll get a ticket for it," she said.
Barksdale said that there are checks in place to watch over ticketing officers.
"Supervision and training is an on-going task," she said. "Citations are reviewed and we are able to run productivity reports through our database that allows us to view information specific to their direct supervision."
