Being a fourth-year student at the University of Maine, I have witnessed a lot of change during my time here. I remember when parking tickets were $30. Now, if you are a student and you park in the wrong lot, you have a $50 charge added directly to your student account. This is an outrageous amount of money for an action that did not cost the University any money.
I do want to clarify that I am a defender of UMaine parking and transportation services. Parking Services offers benefits, such as jumpstarts and bus vouchers. I am not upset about Parking Services ticketing cars, because they are just doing their job. I know that the student employee who tickets my car did not decide the price. Receiving a parking ticket is (typically) my fault. However, the repercussions for parking in the wrong color lot far outweigh the offense.
We pay tuition to go here. Auxiliary Services should not rely on parking-ticket income for filling potholes in the parking lot. That is general maintenance that a university of this size and scale should be able to afford without overcharging students. Fifty dollars is my groceries for over a week. It should not cost a student a week’s worth of groceries to pay for a small mistake. And if we are being honest, it is not fair that a University department, like Auxiliary Service, that provides essential services on our campus, requires money from parking tickets to sustain their budget. That is not a reliable source of income.
I would say UMaine is a car friendly school. Many schools do not let students bring a car their freshman year, and schools like University of Connecticut charge over $1000 per year for some of their students to park. Maybe the incentive to allow so many cars on campus is to maximize ticket “profit.” At $50 per ticket, the University certainly maximizes parking income. It would be more reasonable for UMaine to match the price of other similar tickets in Maine. At the University of Maine Farmington, a parking ticket will cost you $20.
These are not $50 tickets for parking in handicapped spots or a firelane. This is for a student parking in the wrong lot. The University should fund Auxiliary Services and parking services so that they do not rely on expensive tickets to stay afloat. As “cross-charging” flourishes at this University and our bills are becoming increasingly itemized, the University needs to lower parking tickets. We as students need to be vigilant and aware of any ticket price increase, so we can mobilize to speak out against it.
