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VOL. 49, NO. 11 / OCT. 10 2011
Parking always an issue
State of the University
TICKETS, from page 1
APPRECIATION, from page 1
where this mysterious yellow envelope came from. The USA Police Department has several full-time employees who are dedicated solely to the purpose of enforcing parking rules and regulations. Recently, students have even been hired to take on the task. “I liked the idea of bringing on students to issue citations because they’ve been there, and they know what it’s like,” Aull said. Uniformed officers also have the ability to issue citations, though Chief Aull says it isn’t one of their main functions. In the rare cases in which a uniformed officer does issue a citation, it is upon specific request. Tickets given by these officers are no different than those issued by ticket officers. The most common offenses reported by Parking Services are parking out of zone and failure to display a parking permit properly. Chief Aull believes failure to properly display one’s tag is an avoidable problem that can be easily fixed. “Students will sometimes have their permits sitting in their passenger seat or on the console, and this isn’t the proper way to display them,” Aull said. “Just hang it on your rear view mirror or in an obvious place on your dash, and you will be fine.”
The anxiety that follows seeing the ticket on your windshield is usually followed by the displeasure of realizing that you must now pay for violating the parking policy. Students often simply pay the ticket and think nothing of it. But at the same time, some may wonder where the money is going after they pay their fine. According to Vice President of Student Affairs John Smith, revenue generated from parking tickets is put back into the maintenance of roads around campus. This includes, but is not limited to, resurfacing and striping the pavement, as well as general parking lot upkeep. For those out there that believe they can just brush off a parking ticket, think again. Unpaid parking tickets come with some pretty serious penalties. A hold will be put on your transcript, and you also cannot graduate without first paying your parking tickets. Receiving a parking ticket isn’t the end of the line though. Students who believe they were wrongfully ticketed may appeal the ticket online on the Parking Services webpage: www.southalabama.edu/parkingservices. On this page you can also read the rules and regulations as well as general parking information. The USA Police Department also has a Facebook page.
facilities to use as a reference for their own nationally in graduating their students. projects with the newly-constructed recre“I thought I was given a P.R. spin and ation center receiving the most inquiries. not the actual numbers and that’s someMoulton acknowledged the struggles thing we can all be proud of,” Moulton students have faced due to recent tuition said. “Kudos to the entire University for hikes, 23 percent over three years. their efforts to continually graduate stu“I hope that in the future we don’t have dents at this level.” to increase tuition,” Moulton said. “DeLastly, Moulton asked for increased spite the hikes, we’ve remained competi- support by the University’s backers and tive in the state community and region in reon both an gards to tuition emotive and and education.” financial levDespite the el, expresstuition increase, ing a vision the University of what the is still attractschool may ing incoming eventually freshman at an become. increased rate, “We’ve had 26 perdrawing over cent of our 15,000 in enrollfederal fundment for the sec- President Gordon Moulton VANGUARD ARCHIVES ing cut over ond-straight year. the last three years and we’ve been able to Especially impressive is the number of live through it. And why? For the reasons freshman with high-level ACT scores. The College of Medicine continues to be we’ve just talked about,” Moulton said. amongst the most successful colleges on “We’ve been able to retain our key people.” campus with 95 percent of graduates obtaining their license on their first try. The Mitchell College of Business also earned high marks, ranking in the top 10 percent
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COURTESY OF PATRICK HERRING
The dreaded ticket on the windshield. We all know it’s yellow without it even being in color.
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