Editorial Cars should be towed, not ticketed

It's a common scene these days-angry upperclassmen have to park in the Dixon Center lot because all of the spaces by their dorm are full. They call Public Safety for an escort, and 20 minutes later, their ride pulls up.

•

Parking is such a major issue on campus that the junior class held a meeting about it last week with students and mem• bers of the administration. The students learned of something that made their jaws drop-Public Safety has already dished out $30,000 in parking ticket fines. Only a fraction of that has been paid, however:

The problem has a number of dimen- • sions. Freshmen should not have cars on campus, except for special circumstances. Director of Public Safety Charlie Schaffner is doing the right thing by personally approving freshmen permits himself. So far, according to Schaffner, he has let only 25 permits go out to freshmen. That number is too low to explain the lack of parking spots on campus. Part of the problem is that other freshmen have unregistered vehicles.

But other students in addition to freshmen have unregistered cars on campus. Those unregistered vehicles are normally ticketed and the person would have to pay a fine. Most students come up with some excuse as to why they do not think they should pay the fine and they are granted their wish.

Some, however, choose to ignore the fine and not pay it at all, like the freshman female in Xavier who has a section of her dorm room wallpapered in tickets, Who is going after people like that? Not being able to register for classes because you have a business hold for parking tick~ ets should be punishment enough, but it isn't to these people.

A solution to this would be to tow the cars that do not belong on campus. After a person has had their unregistered car ticketed for a third time, it should be towed. Most colleges do not even allow a grace period-they tow after the first strike. Students would start getting the hint after their car is towed to a location off campus and they have to pay $7 5-$100 to get their car back-that is a far cry from the $25 students pay now.

Of course, the parking issue would be solved if there were more parking spots available on campus. It is impossible for the college to build a garfige by the end of the academic year and no one expects them to do so. However, the administration is getting ready to make up the budget for next year-it would be wise to save some money in the budget for the parking problem.