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St. Cloud State University
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Committee to reform fines
By Adam Johnson
Published:
Monday, March 24, 2003
Students who have found themselves the victim of chronic parking tickets will soon have an even greater cause for concern.
The St. Cloud City Council has formed a parking fine committee dedicated to reforming the city's parking situation which, after analyzing the parking fines of a number of Minnesota cities, determined that SCSU's parking problem may be the result of the leniency of St. Cloud's ticket fines.
The council believes that the city should raise the fine for parking violations in the campus neighborhood from $5 to $20 by June 1.
The committee's proposal is currently directed only at the campus area, while the rest of the city's fines would go unchanged. This creates a potential problem for those students whose parking fines already cause a pain in their pocketbooks.
Though the main purpose of the fine increase is to deter illegal parking among students, parking fine committee member Jerry Middelstadt said that he doesn't expect the change to significantly reduce the number of tickets issued.
"It will force people to take notice of the problem and that's what we need," Middelstadt said.
Dave Plourde, the Student Government chair for urban affairs, agrees and believes a raise in the cost of a ticket will have a positive result on the university.
"The change (in prices) will definitely increase awareness of the issue," Plourde said. "The good thing is that the problem will be addressed, which will hopefully lead people to find a solution to the campus' parking situation."
Currently, there are less than 4,000 public parking spaces in the greater campus area, which must accommodate the more than 16,000 students who attend SCSU. This lack of space has caused problems for students for many years, but the university has never seriously considered alternatives to solve them.
The parking fines committee has announced it will host an open forum for students who wish to discuss the parking situation Thursday, April 3 in the Atwood Glacier Room, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Students will be given the opportunity to respond to the proposed hike in parking fines, as well as the larger issue of SCSU's limited parking problems, while the committee will be able to greater explain the reasons for their actions.
"We don't want to put it all on the students' shoulders," Middelstadt said. "We realize that there are others in the area, such as those who work downtown, who contribute to the problem as well."
Middelstadt believes that this forum will be the first of many positive steps toward remedying the campus' dilemma.
"The only way violations will go down is if the university takes action to change the parking situation," Middelstadt said.
Potential solutions students have put forth in the past have included the construction of a parking ramp or deck near campus. These ideas have been met with severe criticism by community residents, who oppose altering the look of the area's historic neighborhood.
Despite these objections, an alternative to the current situation facing students is desperately needed.
"It's a hard problem to fix," Plourde said. "But if we can get enough students to come (to the open forum), it throws weight behind the side looking to solve this problem ... which is exactly what we need."
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