2008 Woodie Awards
Parking tickets have some students acting irrationally
Melissa Cook / Staff Writer
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University of West Florida's new parking plan has received mixed reviews from faculty, staff and students, but a few violent reactions have required police investigation in recent weeks.
A few students upset with being ticketed have allegedly harassed and cussed out parking services employees, UWF police said. After receiving a ticket for illegal parking, one student threatened to use a baseball bat to take out his frustration with a parking services patroller, police said.
Sgt. David Faircloth of the UWF Police Department described such incidents as rare. For the most part, students have accepted parking tickets and the new parking plan, he said.
"Parking services used to be run through the police department," Faircloth said. "They separated over a year ago, and I suppose that some students feel more comfortable using foul language at a parking services employee when it is not inside the police department."
According to UWF police reports, an unidentified student received a parking ticket on Sept. 23 for parking his car in a handicapped space in front of Martin Hall. The student, who UWF asked The Voyager not to name, filed an appeal with parking services explaining that he could not afford to pay the fine, the report said.
After being rude to employees, the student left angrily before finding out his ticket had been voided, the report said.
UWF police said that after leaving parking services, the same student trashed UWF with an obscenity-filled posting on a Web site that connects people through social networks at universities.
According to police reports, one day later, that same student allegedly "harassed" the ticket writer outside the Commons.
John "Chip" Chism, parking services manager for UWF, said the matter was turned over to the UWF Police Department and the UWF Division of Student Affairs for further discussion.
Laura Sommers, who works in the Judicial Affairs department at UWF, said she dealt with the incident but was not permitted to reveal the outcome of the discussion she had with the student or if any action was taken.
On Sept. 30, another student, who police said had threatened to "beat up" parking patrollers last year, had another brush with the new parking system and allegedly made a violent threat, police reports said.
"I'm going to park my car illegally, and then I'm going to wait behind a tree with a baseball bat," the student allegedly told a parking services employee. "I will wait there, and I'm going to attack the next person to write me a ticket," police quoted the student saying to a parking services employee.
Chism said he believed the student was joking and acting out of anger. But he said police were notified, and a formal report was filed.
When it is alleged that a student has violated the Student Code of Conduct, the situation is turned over to Student Affairs.
Sommers said the process begins with a formal complaint being lodged by a member of faculty or staff, a student or an official police report. Sommers said that after the complaint is filed, Student Affairs will meet with both the charged student and the victim regarding the alleged incident.
Sommers said that Student Affairs couldn't reveal if any of the students allegedly involved in these incidents have went through this process.
"The matters are now closed, and Student Affairs has settled them," Chism said.
The Student Code of Conduct booklet states that the dean of students, or designees, determines charging for non-academic misconduct practices, which is the category the parking incidents would fall under.
If a student is charged, they are to select a hearing from the appropriate agency. In the hearing forum, the student has the right to have charges heard by a university panel. Or, a student could waive this right and request a designated university administrator to review the case and make a decision with regard to sanctioning.
Sommers said that most parking-related incidents are on a one-time basis where the student immediately acts out of emotion but that when formal threats are made, the university must pursue the case.
Although not all students have been charged for having short-lived outbursts over parking tickets, parking services still wants it to be clear that those kinds of behaviors are not acceptable or appreciated.
If a student is charged with using threatening behavior and is found responsible, they will face the possibility of any of the 12 sanctions written in the Student Code of Conduct booklet. The most serious sanction that a student can receive is expulsion.
Chism said he has nothing but compliments for Student Affairs and the way officials have handled certain parking incidents this year.
He added that because there is a new parking system in place, he has been more than lenient with removing parking fines.
"For the first three weeks of school, we let a lot of things slide," Chism said. "I have tried to be understanding and work with students, faculty and staff to help make changes and transitions happen smoothly."
Chism said he personally placed warning letters on the windshields of cars parked in faculty and staff parking sections to inform drivers that they were violating a parking regulation. With the letters, he attached the parking regulation booklet each student received when they purchased their parking pass.
"My main objective has been to get the new parking regulations out there, where students will read them," Chism said. "The new system is simple. All it requires is reading the signs that are posted in every lot."
Chism said the main problem is that most students want to park in the same lots and that everyone wants a parking spot right by the building where they have class.
"Lots J, L and Z are half to three-fourths empty on most days," Chism said. "We actually have a surplus of parking spaces if students are willing to walk a little farther, or ride the trolley to get closer to their classes."
Chism said that from as far out as Village West, to the far edge of lot X, it is only nine-tenths of a mile.
"Students have it in their heads that the available parking spaces are very far out. But in all actuality, they are not," Chism said.
Chism said that if a student is to collect more than six unpaid parking tickets, their car could be booted. A boot on one tire locks the car in place so it cannot be driven until some kind of payment is made.
The University will make a payment plan with students if they cannot afford to pay all of the fines at once, Chism said. Student cannot receive grades, register or graduate until all fines have been paid.
Chism said people don't like adapting to change but that overall, the students are complying to the new parking system with better attitudes than he initially expected. Commuters have been given more spaces and better space locations than in the past.
There are 9,611 students enrolled at UWF. Chism said some of these students have never had a ticket before and never will, and some students have had tickets multiple times.
"If people want to follow the rules, they can easily avoid getting tickets," Chism said. "The system is simple, and the font size that designates who can park in what lot on the parking signs has been increased, bolded,and made black so that it is easier for students to read."