By Daniel Magos
Contributor
There is an oppressive practice taking place among our pride (or pack?). While CSUSM stands for justice and equality, the Parking Enforcement Department continues to ignore the pleas of students for fair treatment.
On May 8, 2014, Anderson Gould shared his story of woe in this fine Chronicle newspaper: He purchased a $9.00 day pass, placed it on his dash and in the course of the day it fell out of sight, and he was forced to pay an additional $65.00 citation fee, despite fairly contesting it.
While this practice is completely understandable for a student who refuses to pay for the abundant parking available at CSUSM, it is unfair, oppressive and excessive for a student who has already purchased the ticket for the day.
So rather than complain, let’s make a change. I am proposing that Parking and Enforcement either forgives these instances, or offer a reduced penalty, say a $20 penalty for the parking pass falling out of sight or a student forgetting to place it in sight.
The parking department has been historically silent on this issue, choosing to ignore the student requests. Well Cougars, let’s let them hear our roar by signing a petition. I’ll go ahead and offer one below:
Keep prowlin’ my friends.
Megan Rickards • Sep 19, 2017 at 10:58 am
After circling the parking structure for nearly an hour, I was forced to give up and attempt to find parking elsewhere so as not to be late for my class. Sadly, my story is not an isolated one. After my professor began class by asking how we all were, I spoke up and said stressed after searching for parking. In responce to this, my classmates also chimed in saying that they too were stressed about it, to put this situation lightly. It appears to be a situation that goes unchanged semester by semester.
With the ever growing number of students coming to this school, something has to be done about this. Students should not be forced to chose between continuing to search for a spot, or park off campus and be late to class. This school cannot be allowed to continue admitting even more students without offering improved parking. While we understand that the school needs money, we also need places to park that will not force us to be late to class. This is unfair to those who either pay for an hourly or day pass or semester/year long pass.
As such, I suggest that students speak up and urge the school to at least cap the number the students admitted here every semester. As it stands, an email was sent to students several weeks back informing them that this semester has the highest number of enrolled students. While that’s good and all, the ever growing number needs new places to park. Until that happens, a good first step is to at least cap the number of students admitted here every semester.
So please, if you’re as fed up with this sitation as I am, please speak up. Thank you.