Florida A&M University parking services has new rules for students to register their vehicle within the university system. Citations are on the rise.
While students are adjusting to university changes, citations are still being issued.
Going online and waiting for a decal through mail is the new way a life; FAMU adopted this program that has been going on at other universities.
According to assistant chief of police James Lockley, approximately 300 citations were given on Tuesday alone. Chief Lockley said this is normal.
“This brings back appliance,” Lockley said. “We implemented this new program and we are pleased with it. It brings automation.”
According to students who received a parking ticket, they were charged $30. With 300 tickets being issued in one day, parking services brought in $9,000.
LaShonda Gaines, 22, a fourth-year criminal justicestudent from Ft. Lauderdale, is upset about the new process and the problems it is causing.
“I’m so disgusted, in a matter of a hour and a half I got two tickets,” Gaines said. “I do not plan to pay these tickets because it is not fair. The decal is not here when they said it would be.”
Gaines has not received her decal in the mail and was forced to go get an extension.
Basiyr King, 22, a fourth-year marketing student from Philadelphia, has a mutual feeling on the issue and overall parking services.
“Some tickets are acceptable and we students know why we get them, and then sometimes tickets are not, because we do not have enough parking and we park where we can to get our education,” King said.
King said he would like parking officials to solve problems so tickets won’t have to be issued.
“If they resolve some of the many reasons and issues why we students are getting the tickets, then that would lower a students’ risks of receiving them,” King said.
As reported by the chief of police, “Money collected from citations goes to decals, cars used to service parking, gas, preparations for parking lots, office expenses, and the parking officers.”
Chief Lockley said the parking officers are not on university payroll, however, they are an auxiliary force paid through money raised from citations.
Devan Moore, 20, a third-year music education student from Tallahassee, said parking services and its citations are too extreme.
“We pay too much money as students already,” Moore said.
Moore thinks that some students deserve the tickets, but not the majority.
“They give tickets for outrageous stuff like parking your car backed in, and not having a decal that you have not received through mail within the time they give you,” Moore said.
Nonetheless, Chief Lockley assures students that receiving a citation for not having the proper decal process will continue.