1,553 tickets issued in first week at CMU, 30 percent of parking violations voided
Central Michigan University Police issued 1,553 parking violations during the first week of classes.
Out of those violations, 453 tickets were voided, said Kim Roshak, office manager of CMU Parking Services. There are 54 citations still pending, as of Tuesday afternoon.
Most citations issued were for not properly displaying a parking pass, which is called a “Failure to Display,” Roshak said.
“If a student comes in the Parking Services office with a ticket for failure to display and purchases the required parking permit, we will, as a courtesy, void their parking citation,” she said.
The approximate 30 percent void rate and the 1,500-plus tickets are both consistent for the first week of classes, according to CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley. Last year, about 1,400 tickets were given out during the first week.
Yeagley said the department does not try to have any special parking enforcement for the first week of school, so students get a sense of how they will be expected to park for the whole school year.
“Our philosophy is fair and consistent ticketing and that’s for two reasons,” he said. “One, if we don’t enforce the rules we have a mess out there and people can’t get to their classes or to their residence halls. And two, people pay a lot of money to park out there and we need to make sure it’s fair to them.”
Students pay $175 for commuter parking passes and $150 to park in residence hall lots.
The fine for a failure to display is $25 and increases to $35 if not paid within seven days, according to the CMU Police website.
The CMU Police Department issued 28,833 citations, generating $679,866 in revenue during the 2008-09 academic year, the most recent year for which data is available.
Yeagley said the department tries to make it as clear as possible to students, especially new students, where they can and cannot park.
“We make it clear when we mail out the passes; we send a letter with them stating where they can park and give them a map showing where they can park,” he said. “We try hard not to get in that judgment call situation, because how do you know when somebody is telling the truth.”
