Sophomores who favor convenience over consequence in their parking choices are facing windshields cluttered with expensive tickets from the university.
The stringent monitoring of campus parking lots, coupled with expensive parking tickets, has left frustrated sophomores digging into their wallets and questioning Tufts' parking regulations.
Parking passes, which are priced at $240 per semester for all resident students, give different parking privileges to students based on class year. With two lots available for sophomore parking - one located behind Hill Hall and the other adjacent to Cousens Gym - many sophomores are incensed by the disparity between parking convenience and the price of a parking pass.
"It's ridiculous that I'm paying $300 a semester to park far away when sometimes there isn't even a spot to park," sophomore Mara James said.
James, a resident of Wren Hall, has been no stranger to an excess of parking citations. She said that the lots reserved for juniors, seniors and faculty members behind Carmichael and Miller are rarely at their full capacity.
"I think it's completely irrational that the parking lots near Wren and Miller are never full, yet sophomores aren't allowed to use them," James said. "It just doesn't make sense that the people who live uphill can't park there."
But Captain Mark Keith of the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) said that there is an explanation for the existing rules.
"Just because there are empty spots in the lot doesn't mean they can accommodate the entire sophomore class," Keith said.
Sophomore Andrea Shadick avoids the lofty prices and inconvenience that many feel plague the campus parking policy by parking off campus at a friend's house.
"I don't think it's worth the hundreds of dollars to park in the gym parking lot every semester, which is a huge chuck of my salary," Shadick said. "For my job, I have to have a car, and I don't have time to walk down to get my car in another lot between classes and still make it to work."
Although not currently an on-campus parker, Shadick has noticed both vacancies in the uphill parking lots and a widespread disregard for parking policy by students.
"I will walk back through the parking lot behind Carmichael, and I will see tickets on almost every window," she said. "I feel like there are few upperclassmen that use the lots behind Miller and Carmichael, so I think it's just a waste of space."
Keith said students who make the choice to park in undesignated areas should know that their actions might be accompanied by financial and possibly judicial
consequences.
"In a rare situation of excessive parking violations, there may be further disciplinary action outside of our department," Keith said.
Both James and Shadick have experienced the stringency of campus parking policy in the form of hefty fees from TUPD's Administrative Services.
"They give extraordinarily expensive tickets ... I have over $1,000 to pay," James said. "The tickets are far more expensive than those you would get in the city."
According to Keith, the money generated from both the cost of parking decals and parking violation fees has gone toward paying off debt associated with the construction of Dowling Hall eight years ago.
"I think you might find that the cost of parking decals and violations at Tufts are comparable to that of other campuses closer to the Boston area," Keith said.
The financial burden of parking citations, all of which have been transferred to her bursar bill, prevented James from carrying forth vacation plans.
"I [did not go] anywhere for spring break because of how many parking tickets I have," James said. "I just had to get two jobs to pay for them."
After the expiration of a temporary parking pass earlier this year, Shadick also fell victim to the enforcement of designated uphill parking. She now views the convenience of parking in the lots near Wren and Miller as largely overshadowed by the financial consequences.
"There was a gap in between parking situations where I didn't have anywhere to park, and it was really bad," Shadick said. "Still, I think the ramifications of parking illegally are not worth it. It's just too expensive; you might as well trek the extra ten minutes and put your car where it should be instead of paying hundreds of dollars in parking tickets."
Like Shadick, sophomore Wren resident Will Temple tries to avoid being ticketed.
"I've never had any personal experience with parking in the Wren lot and getting tickets, but I'm not going to risk getting a ticket to park there," Temple said.
In an attempt to avoid parking violations and still enjoy the convenience of lots prohibited to them, some sophomores have asked juniors or seniors to obtain passes for them.
"I have friends who park behind Wren, but they have gotten seniors to get their passes," James said. "If my car wasn't registered in my parent's name, I would have done the same thing."
Junior Junaid Hashim, a resident advisor in Wren Hall, has been asked to register cars for sophomores in the past.
"Although some people have asked me to sign their parking passes for them, I can't because I don't have a license," Hashim said. "I definitely think they should just make it easier for sophomores to park where they want because it's not like there are that many cars on campus."
Many students are in agreement that the parking policy needs to be more lenient for sophomores.
"I don't even think the campus needs another parking lot," James said. "I think there should be ten spots [in the Wren parking lot] that are first-come, first-serve, or if not, that the lot should be open to sophomores for certain hours of the day. The parking situation needs to be re-evaluated."
Shadick felt that different pricing for parking passes would also be an improvement and less of a burden on student budgets.
"I would be very supportive of a tiered pricing system for parking passes, where the price would be based on the location of the parking lot used in relation to the center of the campus," she said.
Although Keith said that the parking policy could possibly be changed with further reviews to come in the future, time has painted a different outlook.
"Historically speaking, sophomores have not been able to park everywhere that upperclassmen have, not only due to the greater privileges that come with being an upperclassmen, but also due to the lack of space on campus," Keith said.
