The St. Lawrence campus has seen an increase of over 200 cars above average on campus this fall semester, creating frustrations for both security officials and students.

This rise has created issues regarding the number of convenient parking spaces available. However, even before this increase, students still seemed to have issues with their parking location on campus.

As of Oct. 24, 2018, 375 tickets were issued, up 87 more than Oct. 24, 2017. Crystal Corbett, Technical Services Coordinator for Safety and Security at St. Lawrence who manages the permit system, is unsure at this time exactly why that is. However, with the increase in cars on campus, it seems likely there would be an increase in tickets issued.

Patrick Gagnon, assistant vice president for Safety and Security, shared some of his thoughts on the issue. “When you’re in our work this is the worst thing you ever have to deal with,” he said. “It’s an aggravation issue from the people who park and it’s an aggravation issue from the people who are hearing about it.”

Current students and recent alumni felt these frustrations as well. Michael Regan ’17 had a car on campus for five semesters. “The fact that you would get bombarded by security for parking in the bookstore for a couple minutes to run into Sykes is what got me mad,” he explained after receiving a total of six tickets.

Meghan O’Connor ’19, a member of the basketball team, has been issued 25 tickets since bringing a car during her first year. Most of her tickets were issued in the K-Lot where she would park during practice. D-Lot, located nearby, is allowed for students, yet O’Connor was unaware of this. “Now I park behind there,” she said, after being informed to do so by security, who she found outside her car after practice one day.

Students failing to register their cars is also an issue that security looks to fix through citations. Allie Courtwright ’19explained that when she failed to register her car after a number of weeks this fall, she received two warnings and around six tickets.

Warnings are issued during the first weeks of school. “Normally for the first two to three weeks at school, it’s all warnings that are given to give students time to register, and to get acclimated to the parking lot systems, but after that, it just depends on their history,” Corbett explained.

As it is only her second semester bringing a car on campus and not registering the semester before, Courtwright wishes they would be more explicit about the registration process.

“Emails get lost too easily,” she said. “Put it on SLUwire or make a paper slip.” Gagnon brought up a similar point when discussing communication regarding parking.

The “ideal solution” he said, “is probably this article or the communications of the challenges as they come up. There is no quick answer.” Yet even with these issues, there are still a number of students who have never received a parking violation.

“A lot of the students who get parking tickets don’t register their car, which is silly” explained Mary Santos ‘19 , who has never received a citation in her four semester of having a car on campus.

“I honestly don’t park illegally that often” said Santos, in regards to never receiving a citation. Yet, even someone like  Ellie Quinn ’20, who does sometimes park illegally, has never received a ticket either.

“You gotta be strategic about it, ya know? Park in the back of a lot, pull in, don’t back in,” she explained. Earlier that day, Quinn had parked in a faculty lot in front of a security officer for an hour and did not receive a ticket. So what’s the catch?

With the construction of Kirk Douglas Hall and St. Lawrence being a walking campus, convenient parking spaces have been an issue. However, with so many students still receiving tickets, are students becoming lazy by parking illegally or is security getting harsher with ticketing?

Either way, understanding that there are enough student parking spaces on campus and “making sure that people register so there’s fairness” said Gagnon, are some of the biggest take-aways he would like students to understand.