In this photo, cars are shown with orange UConn parking tickets on their windshields. Parking Services issued a statement via email last weekend warning students about an impending crackdown that will likely result in more tickets. (Amar Batra/The Daily Campus)
The orange envelope has become a sight that commuting students know and dread. This past weekend, UConn Parking Services issued a statement via email warning students about an impending crackdown that will likely result in more tickets.
UConn Parking Services said they would begin the crackdown on Nov. 9.
The email came after multiple students displayed their permits improperly. Student permit holders must display the permit in the lower right-hand side of their windshield. UConn Parking Services wrote that warning tickets for the infraction have been “ineffective.”
“Our enforcement staff will, therefore, begin issuing fee based parking tickets to vehicles in which permits are not properly displayed starting Monday,” the email said.
Students had mixed reactions to the email.
“It is ridiculous,” said fifth semester history major Stacey Pelton. “I have been ticketed so many times on this campus that I can hardly count… I just don’t know why is matters where it is on my windshield as long as I have it.”
The email detailed very specific instructions for students whose permit does not comply with the rules.
“If you must remove your current decal permit, remember that you will need to bring its identifiable scrapings, specifically including its permit number, to the Parking Services office in order to be issued a no-charge replacement decal,” UConn Parking Services wrote.
“The part that got me was ‘bring its identifiable scrapings’,” said first semester speech pathology major Eilis Welsh. “That seems a bit much.”
Other students saw the email as a fair precautionary measure.
“I think they are doing it so people don’t cheat and just tape them on the window,” said seventh semester audiology major Rebecca Welles. “I’ve heard of people that tape them on their car, pull them off, and tape them on their friends car.”
UConn Parking Services will begin issuing citations on Monday regardless of how students feel but wrote, “we would prefer not to have to issue citations of this type on Monday.”
UConn Parking Services declined to comment beyond the email.
Jon Hull is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at jonathan.hull@uconn.edu.
