Issue date: 3/31/09 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Gail Hernandez [Click to enlarge]

West Campus. Thursday afternoon. I pulled into a pay lot and saw a Transportation Services employee writing tickets for vehicles that didn't pay to park. After paying for my own parking, I approached the transportation employee and asked if I would be ok since I had just paid.

"Yea," she said, with the courtesy of a badger.

In turn, I asked if it would be through the system yet, and whether she wanted to see my receipt so she wouldn't write me a ticket.

She said it was fine, looking irritated that I would ask such a question and continued pushing buttons on her ticket machine.

Being the idiot I am, I believed her and went into the library.

Forty-five minutes later, when I reached my car, there was a ticket on the window.

After cursing at my car window and getting surprised looks from everyone in the parking lot, I went to the on campus transportation services office . When I made it to the counter, the lady wasn't the least bit surprised. If I had to guess, things like this happened all the time.

Besides the extreme annoyance, let's take a look at the waste.

Transportation employees are being paid to write unwarranted tickets. There is an office full of employees to fix mistakes made by incompetent meter maids. Also, Aggies have to waste time every day to take care of slip-ups made by Transportation Services officers.

Of the department's $17 million parking budget, Executive Director Rod Weis said much of it goes to paying debts and repair and construction of facilities. He said tickets and fines roughly pay for Transportation Services' enforcement costs.

Weis brought up the point that students paying for permits (which account for 65 percent of the department's revenue) shouldn't have to incur the cost of finding violators.

This is a good idea, but at the same time, it would seem that Transportation Services could at least afford to hire competent enforcement employees.

In the course of writing this column, I dealt with several people in the Transportation Services administration, all of whom were extremely competent and helpful. They were friendly, accommodating and good at their jobs; a complete 180 from the enforcement officers many Aggies deal with on a daily basis. The animosity toward Transportation Services certainly comes from this lack of ability at the lowest levels, and this should change.

As students, we pay a big part of the bill for this department to maintain its operations. Thus, we should demand at least minimal effectiveness from its employees, who have the authority to write us tickets. It's no secret that the vast majority of students have a bad taste in their mouths about Transportation Services, and it stems from the incompetence of these ticket writers. Now is the time to change that. Aggies should demand better of a department they fund, and instead of bashing it all the time, they should try to meaningfully engage the administration in constructive conversations about their employees.

If you are one of the many on campus who are tired of inefficiencies and ridiculous antics about Transportation Services officers, do something about it. Contact someone in the administration; they will be more than happy to talk to you.

Until then, don't forget to save your receipts in the pay lots.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools