I remember helping my girlfriend pack for Thanksgiving break my freshman year at Stetson University. It was a hot November day, and the last thing I wanted to do was shuffle around boxes at the Chaudoin residence parking lot. But like any good boyfriend, I did just that. And I totally regret it.

Helping Alexa pack took an hour at most, but during that timespan, Public Safety managed to hit my Jeep Patriot with a hefty parking ticket. My car was registered for the Gordis zone, but, for the rare instance I was parked in the lot between Chaudoin and Emily Hall. I thought it would be harmless, but clearly I was wrong.

That’s not a rare case here. Plenty of students have faced similar situations, and have been powerless to redact the ticket. If you want to fight the ticket, which I did for this one, you have to schedule a meeting at the Public Safety office for a committee hearing. I signed up the week after Thanksgiving break; I wasn’t scheduled until late spring. Eventually, I sat before three members of the traffic court and had to explain my reasoning for why my jeep was parked at Chaudoin. Essentially, I was begging for forgiveness to avoid a financial penalty, even though my parents shell out thousands of dollars in tuition for Stetson. Thankfully, despite the ludicrousness, I had two of my peers on the traffic court, and they decided that I was allowed to get my ticket voided. Other students aren’t as lucky. The ticket price for unregistered vehicles is $75. Other offenses vary from $30 onward.

Now, I want to make it clear I don’t condone people parking in reserved handicap spots, those reserved for school officials or fire lanes. I believe those measures and penalties should remain in place. However, most parking areas on campus require a permit for common spots. For example, my car was registered for Gordis parking my freshman year, but that was the only lot I was allowed to park my car in. And the current registration cost for a student’s vehicle is a whopping $100. One must wonder how much the university makes in revenue off tickets and registration every year…

The problem is multi-fold as to why parking permits and punishments should be abandoned. First off, weather conditions sometimes pose a factor with getting around campus. Florida weather is challenging: one minute it’s clear skies and sunshine, and the next it’s an unstoppable downpour of rain and lightning. Having to walk to class in stormy weather isn’t ideal, nor safe. Being able to drive to your class across campus reduces these risks. The parking zones are also limited; the school has no major parking garage or complex.

Students are urged to buy permits for parking areas that they sometimes don’t even have access to if it’s filled up. There have been countless times at Gordis when I would be driving around looking for a spot and none were available. I would have to wait in my idling car until someone left in their own car, or I would have to park over by Nemec and risk the chance of getting a ticket. For any college student, that’s plenty of unwanted stress and anxiety. Another factor of safety concerns the town of DeLand itself. While Stetson is a top tier campus, DeLand does have a problem of mugging and gunpoint robberies.

An example of such an occurrence happened with senior music student Daniel Del Castillo. Two years ago at the LBC, Del Castillo was approached by a hooded individual, who then held Del Castillo at gunpoint and took his wallet. From then on, Del Castillo drives everywhere on campus. And since then, Del Castillo’s sweet ride has racked up dozens of parking tickets, all of which he keeps on the hood of his car to prove a point. He schedules and fights each parking ticket against the traffic court, citing concerns of personal safety. P-Safe does stop ticketing after 5pm, but a gunpoint mugging can happen at any point of the day, and having a car nearby can make the difference in a lethal situation. Having my car parked at the building my class is at is reassuring in the event that I need to quickly leave.

Additionally, I feel there’s a certain pettiness to how P-Safe monitors unregistered cars. Following my freshman year, I moved to House C near fraternity circle. Similar to the other dorms there, the parking lot is primarily used by only members of House C. However, P-Safe feels the need every so often to raid the area by giving out tickets to non-stickered cars. Two weeks ago, the entire residency of House C was hit with $75 parking tickets, even though the lot is only used by us. The action was fruitless, and only further caused friction with P-Safe and the fifteen students who typically park there. An example of someone getting shortchanged by the action is my roommate, Brendan Hessler. He has a twin sister on campus, and they both share a car. However, Brendan lives at House C and his sister, Catie, lives at the Pi Phi house. A car is only allowed one registration, so Brendan allowed Catie to get their car registered at her dorm’s lot. Brendan was hit with a $75 ticket because he had the car at House C, which is unjust since they had to already pay for one registration and weren’t allowed to receive another. If anything, the whole idea of the parking permit system seems like a cash grab by the university. Most of the students on campus are paying well over $40-50K in tuition money to attend the school.

Further creating unnecessary financial “catches,” such as a nonsensical parking system, is equivalent to backstabbing students and their parents. Stetson’s policy also implements that students must pay for their tickets in order to graduate. If you don’t, then don’t expect a long sought after diploma waiting for you. There’s a glaring flaw within the registration system too. It concerns unregistered vehicles, which is why I give the impromptu advice that one should not register their car. When a student registers their vehicle, the information is linked to a database in the student’s account. Thus, when the student receives a ticket, it’s added to their account as an unfinished payment. However, if a student doesn’t register their car, then it’s not connected to their account. In that case, a student can still receive ticket for parking in a spot with no registration at all, but P-Safe would have no verified way to hold that student accountable. By eliminating the need for registration, the university can further ease the terse relationship between students and P-Safe.

They are constantly expanding their student population, so they should look into more ways to further expand and enhance parking that’s beneficial to all students. While costly and aesthetically unappealing, a parking garage tower might be able to solve most of the issues with parking. If the school truly wants to seem more transparent and trusted with its student body, then eliminating financial penalties, such as parking tickets, will be a step in the right direction.