Parking policy still confusing to all students

Michael Ferise

An alarm clock goes off at 5:55 a.m.; a student jumps out of bed, throws on sneakers and runs out of House 2. Running up the stairs between Houses 2 and 3, the student takes the short-cut between the Widener Center and Founder’s Hall to get to the parking lot. Finally, she reaches her car to see a long, tan ticket on her windshield.

Looks like everywhere one looks, one sees a Public Safety officer, along with their trusty, ticket pad writing up yet another ticket. The question is, is there an influx? Charlie Schaffner, director of public safety, said, “The parking problem is perceived as more of a problem because of the number of students.” So there really is no influx of students. It’s just that common sense would show that if there is more students on campus with cars, more parking regulations will be violated, hence bringing on more tickets.

At Cabrini, one is given the right to appeal the ticket he or she receives. All you have to do is walk into the public safety office, fill out the appeal form, hand it in with the appeal and wait a few days for the results. Amy Chan, senior graphic design major, said, “I find the whole appeal process so informal. It’s like they receive an appeal and just stamp granted or denied and they don’t even bother to read it. It feels like a lottery sometimes; like you get a few numbers, but most of the time you lose.” When it comes to the appeals, Schaffner said,

“Here is the break down. A third are granted, a third are denied and for the people who receive multiple tickets or just one ticket we grant a third partials. In all appeals I try to look at the student’s point of view.”

Some students feel that they should be allowed to plead their case. Chan said, “I think some people can explain the situation better in person. I don’t think the letter gets the point across.” Is this possible?

Schaffner said, “If you received a ticket from a police officer and wanted to fight it, you would have to take a day off from work, spend the whole day downtown and wait for them to call your case.”

Posted on the Web by: Rob Cain