The University of Louisiana at Lafayette requires all vehicles parked on campus to have a valid parking permit, with the exception of designated visitor parking and hourly parking areas. The high rate of citation issuances, some being unrightful, has led to a high volume of citation appeals weekly.
Cassie Matheny, the Parking Operations Manager at the University’s Office of Transportation Services, discussed the matter of campus parking. She shared that the main rules of parking in a particular zone on campus are that an active parking permit is required, and the permit should be for that specific zone.
Parking zones on campus include residential parking, commuter parking, hourly parking and visitor parking. According to the Office of Transportation Services, permits are required every semester for residential parking, and permits are based on housing assignments.
Commuter students who do not live on campus may obtain a free semesterly permit to park at Cajun Field, and there are bus services to campus beginning at 7 a.m.
Among the other various permits available for commuter students, one of the options is a semesterly permit to park at Girard Park Circle Parking Tower on levels four to six. Hourly parking is also located on the first three levels, and payment is made via the ParkMobile application or website. Several other hourly parking zones can be located via ParkMobile.
Parking citations may be issued to vehicles parked in violation of the UL Traffic Code on UL Lafayette properties by Transportation Services enforcement officers. Matheny said, “We are charged with maintaining order when it comes to parking on campus, and the only way we can do that is by issuing citations.”
Matheny commented that citation fines may vary according to the severity of the violation. She said, “The more severe slash important it is to enforce the rule or the parking rule in that area, then the higher it’s going to be.”
Matheny stated that most citation fines are $35 or $50, and the more severe fines are the ones that violate safety regulations. The fine for parking in zones like a fire lane, no-parking zones and tow-away zones is $100.
In response to these citations of safety violations, Matheny said, “Part of keeping order on campus is also keeping their campus safe when it comes to that. And so we do have to write citations to individuals who park in the fire lanes.”
The highest citation fine amount is $300, for parking in designated handicapped lots without a valid state-issued handicapped permit.
Students who receive a citation for the very first time may put in a request for a courtesy reduction. As long as their violation was not a safety violation, their citation fine may be reduced to a warning so that the student is given a chance to reflect on their mistake, or for Transportation Services to clear up any misunderstandings that could have occurred in the process of issuing the citation.
Matheny acknowledged that mistakes may happen on the end of Transportation Services, such as when license plate numbers get entered incorrectly by enforcement officers. Hence, students or faculty may file an appeal should they think that they did not deserve the citation issued.
Delaney Magee, a freshman majoring in chemical engineering, received a citation by mistake twice. She said, “The first one that I got was for, apparently, my vehicle not being registered, which I did register it, and the second one was for a car that apparently wasn’t registered, but they sent me a picture, and it was not my car at all, but they gave me the ticket for it.”
Kristen Sylvester, a freshman majoring in performing arts with a concentration in dance and a commuter student, also had a similar experience. She shared, “I currently have a nighttime parking permit, which allows me to park from three […] in zone 22 and recently, I just got a parking ticket, and I know I paid for the whole semester, but they still gave me a parking ticket, even though I got there on time.”
Appeals must be filed within four class days, or 96 hours of the citation issuance. Due to the high volume of appeals, they should also be filed online through the parking portal where permits are managed.
Matheny shared the steps that a student should take if they think that a citation they received was a mistake. She said, “If you get that citation, you don’t think you deserved it, first thing you do is check to make sure you have an active permit. The second thing is, make sure you’re in your permitted area.”
“Then the third thing is look at the license plate number on that citation and compare it to what’s in your parking account and what’s linked to your permit. Make sure those match,” she added.
Due to the high volume of appeals, students and faculty should expect appeals to take up to 14 business days to process. Matheny said, “I would say on average, there’s maybe 80 appeals a week. […] That’s a lot for an appeals officer to go through.”
In terms of the loss of parking spaces on campus due to construction works, Matheny commented, “This is a growing pain. It’s going to take some time to catch parking up to the current growth of the University.”
Miles Perez, a senior majoring in moving image arts, shared that he struggles with the lack of parking spaces. He said, “Some of the biggest problems I think I run into when it comes to parking on campus is just finding a spot. A lot of places on campus seem to fill up very quickly, because of the continuing of overpopulation of students […].”
In order to make way for construction works, several parking spaces have had to be sacrificed. However, this was important for the long-term growth of the University. Matheny said that in the meantime, the University is constantly on the lookout for a way to improve parking on campus.