EDITORIAL

Faulty Parking Permit Systems Students Pay For

By Michelle Romero
Thursday, February 22, 2007

Ever since the decision to implement a solely online buying system in January 2007, students have been the poorer! The Foothill-De Anza Police Department’s decision to compel students to buy quarterly parking permits online has stripped students of their right to chose. This “advancement” leaves students without options. While the online buying system is a fantastic new opportunity to avoid waiting in long lines, students should never be cornered in to one buying option.

By forcing students to purchase online, the Department is able to charge additional fees for whatever it sees fit. In fact, to purchase a quarterly permit online, the student pays an additional $3.25 “convenience” charge. What is convenient about more money out of student pockets?

The online system does allow students to elect not to pay by credit card online and instead pay by cash or check in the Cashier’s Office. However, this method is the exact method students have been using to purchase permits in previous years, only now students must enter their personal information in to an online system, print an order number, and then go stand in line. Again, what is so convenient about that?

If that is not bad enough, purchasing a daily permit is out of the question. The outdated machines are a scheme to steal student dollars. The Department fails to properly maintain parking lot permit machines causing several unnecessary parking tickets, which the student then has to pay for! One citation makes the student $35 poorer.

Several students have reported faulty machines in virtually every lot. One student even said, “I went to three different machines to try to buy a permit and there was a dollar stuck in each one!” The fact is, even if students try to abide by the laws of the parking lot, they are many times cited unfairly due to faulty machines.

Outdated machines accept only dollar bills and coins. Some even older machines still only accept coins. Assuming that students are well prepared with dollars and change, the machine may actually time out before the second dollar is ever accepted. This has happened! It takes several attempts to get one crisp dollar through the machine.

Students do not have the time to waste waiting for the machine to do its job! Class should be more important than fighting with a difficult machine until it chooses to function. Therefore, the Department should do its job and properly maintain its equipment.

To accommodate students and staff, the Foothill-De Anza Police Department may want to look in to enabling the parking permit machines to accept student Owl Cards and credit or debit cards. At the very least all systems should operate at a functional level and students should never be forced in to one buying option. Scheming honest students is not a laughing matter.

Word Count: 468 (excluding titles), 482 (with titles)
This was an editorial piece.