Parking tickets—something students and faculty at UW-Whitewater have gotten their fair share of.

Have you gotten to the point of frustration where  you paid your $25 ticket in pennies?

Alumnus Corey Dean has racked up over 25 tickets throughout his numerous years at UW-Whitewater, and he reached the point of paying the fee with a bag of pennies.  Although that might be an extreme case, parking services has become more of an issue with the newly adjusted permits.

Daily passes have gone up, commuters can only park on one half of the campus or the other and meters have been stripped away. Students and faculty alike are struggling to pay the hefty sum to buy a parking permit and are in turn faced with the orange paper of doom on their windshield.

With the increase in prices surrounding parking on campus and the limited spots, I feel we need change now.

Parking services is raising prices, and we are paying them. We need to take a stand and address the changes that are affecting our personal wallets. We need to avoid letting the prices climb and instead ask why they are doing this.

Daily passes went from $2 to $5. A South Commuter Permit is $180 a year and still restricts lots, such as the ones behind the Williams Center. News flash: that is $25 more than last year, and last year  access was granted to every commuter lot on campus. They have jacked up the prices and forced the people of UW-W to pick a side: north or south.

Everyone has a story to share. I park at the Williams Center at least eight times a week, and because of that I bought the North Pass. This means every time I go to class, a group project, the library, my student org and office hours, I have to make the walk from my apartment no matter the weather. Some people may argue that it is not impossible, but I worked two weeks at my on-campus job to pay off my parking permit.

If I am dropping over $100 to park, I feel like I should be able to park wherever I need to. Not only does the division of lots hinder the parking ability of on-campus students, but also the meters have been torn down, forcing those who come less frequently to buy the costly permits.

Let us not forget what kind of school we go to: a commuter college. Many Warhawks are driving over 30 minutes a day to get to class and have no other option but to pay the steep parking permit fee. Meters on Prince St. and Prairie St. have been ripped away and replaced by signs indicating the need of a commuter pass to park there. There are a few meters scattered across campus, but right behind them are the orange cars anxiously waiting for your time to expire. The prices cannot go higher. The meters need to reappear. Take us back to the days when there was not a north or south lot. Bring me the sweet, sweet smell of money in my pocket because I did not have to dump it into parking services.

After talking to a plethora of peers, the best solution to this issue is to undo the separation of lots into north or south.

The system we have right now is not working. It is unfair, and on behalf of the people of UW-Whitewater, I ask for a change. Make all academic and athletic lots commuter lots in general. Allow people to park on the street without a pass. Consider building a new lot near the intramural fields. Think about a bussing system around town that would discourage people from needing to park on campus.

References

UWW Parking Services. (n.d.). Retrieved April 07, 2018, from         https://www.uww.edu/apps/icit/aimsweb/

Parking. (n.d.). Retrieved April 07, 2018, from http://www.uww.edu/adminaffairs/parking/students

Parking. (n.d.). Retrieved April 07, 2018, from https://www.uww.edu/adminaffairs/parking/generalinfo