You have to have been living under a rock this semester to not be aware of the horrendous parking situation at UTM. It is one of the more frequently discussed issues on campus, and it is rare that anyone has anything good to say about it. While I agree that parking is awful no matter what your parking sticker says, one thing I cannot understand is aggression toward ticket writers.

Ticket writers are people, too, and believe it or not, they do not generally take a malicious pleasure in sticking that little yellow envelope in your windshield wipers. They are just doing their job; trying to get by and pay their way through school just like the rest of us. Working for campus security is actually a very convenient job for a student; you are working on campus, your superiors fit your work schedule in around your class schedule (and do not give you a hard time about it), and while you are only making minimum wage, you are making a little extra money that you don’t have to spend on gas, since you are already on campus. Most students who work as ticket writers have these facts in mind, not an ulterior motive involving their stylus and the VIN of someone they do not like.

Ticket writers get shouted at from across the parking lot they are working. They are called obscene names, chased down by violators heatedly demanding explanations for the ticket they have been issued, and even threatened with violence. While ticket writers understand that it is difficult to find parking on campus, they are only doing their job. If they were lenient on violators, they could lose that job that might be necessary to help pay rent or buy food for that month.

It is completely understandable that getting a parking ticket is unpleasant, especially when you parked illegally because there was no where else you could find and you were almost late to class. But the point is that you did park illegally, and ticket writers are instructed by the university to issue tickets to illegally parked cars. I think the old saying applies well here: “Don’t punish the messenger for the message.”