Students frustrated with excessive parking fines

It's the most unpleasant surprise for any driver. \nSeeing that familiar, yellow envelope, neatly tucked under one windshield wiper could ruin any student's day. But before running to pay the ticket or allowing it to be posted to the bursar bill, students should know that there is another option.\nIU Parking Operations Manager Doug Porter said there is an appeal process students can go through in order to have their parking ticket dismissed. A ticket may be appealed within 10 business days by mail, online or at the IU Parking Operations office in Franklin Hall. \n"The appeal process is an exercise in persuasive writing," Porter said. "You are trying to convince someone that you do not deserve this ticket."\nPorter has heard every excuse ranging from "I didn't know I had to have a permit" to "I was just dropping off a paper."\nAnd sometimes Porter hears the same excuses 100 times ... from the same student.\nHe said the most tickets one student has received was about 100 during the course of two semesters. And even though not every student is this extreme, most students just park illegally for the convenience.\n"A lot of times I think it's one of two things," Porter said. "People want as much convenience as possible, and gamble and take the chance of getting a ticket."\nJunior Matt Gentry said he has received about 10 tickets and has had three dismissed. \n"The tickets I got out of were for parking in a D spot," he said. "At the time, I was really close to the top of the waiting list for a D permit, and so that's why I parked there. But one time, I said I had a flat tire, so I got that appealed."\nFreshman Keats Wineland has received four tickets already in her time at IU. \n"They were all misunderstandings," she said. "Well, three of them, if you want to get technical."\nWineland received her tickets for parking in the library without the proper permit displayed, in the stadium parking lot on game day and the other two for not displaying her permit.\n"My first ticket (for improper display of a permit) was dismissed, and the other two are in the process of being appealed -- and hopefully dismissed," she said.\nSophomore Amanda Henry is also familiar with parking fines.\n"It was in the Briscoe lot. It was a misunderstanding on my part and poor labeling on their part," she said. "I'm not going to appeal it, though. I'm too lazy for that."\nAs far as being fair in dismissing tickets, Gentry feels Parking Operations is generous and suggests the process.\n"It seems like they get more lenient, depending on how much you work with them, how much you've tried to follow rules and work with the system," he said. "I think that makes them give you more sympathy."\nPorter also thinks it's a good idea to use the appeal process.\n"It's probably good advice to try and appeal a ticket because it won't cost you anything but your time," he said. "If you don't appeal it, no one is going to excuse you for it."\n-- Contact staff writer Lauren Bristow at lbristow@indiana.edu.