
Students concerned with Public Safety ticketing
By Jay Roberson
A little over a year after implementing a new parking fee for all Rider students, there have been numerous improvements among parking lots and campus safety, however, students have seen an increase in ticketing.
Though there have been improvements sparked by student concerns, like new light fixtures, security cameras and curb cuts, some students still feel Rider’s parking situation isn’t fair to all students.
Senior English major Maura Corman has been a commuter student for four years while attending Rider.
“The forcing of commuters to pay [a parking fee] is very frustrating, because as a commuter, you make that option so you can save money, right? Theoretically, we’re still saving money, but we have to pay $250 plus tax for the full year. It’s just annoying because on top of that, we also have to pay for gas, deal with the stress of getting ourselves to campus every day and fight for a parking spot,” said Corman.
A big issue for Corman was the overspill of residents into the commuter lot which leaves many commuters scrambling for a parking spot.
In a more recent interview, Reca explained that he and the Interim Director of Public Safety, Matthew Babcock, are attempting to address this specific issue.
“One of the things that [Babcock] is taking on is better signage. I actually just got an email from him today about how he wants to improve all the signage so it’s very delineated and very clear.”
Corman explained that because of lack of parking for commuters, she received a ticket for parking in a nonexistent spot. Her request to appeal the ticket was denied.
“I appealed it, and [public safety] said it would take two weeks before I had to pay it. I didn’t get a response from my appeal until the afternoon that I had to pay the ticket … I just went and I paid it, and then I got an email that afternoon saying that it was denied so I feel like the appeals process isn’t as efficient as it should be,” said Corman.
Ava Graves, a sophomore business administration major, had a similar experience waiting for public safety after applying for a hardship pass, which excuses students from paying a parking fee if they qualify.
“I filled [a hardship pass] out at the very beginning of last semester… they never got back to me, and the semester started getting crazy, so I kind of forgot about it. I kept getting parking tickets over and over again. My mom and I were going through loans in mid January for this semester … and we see that I have $955 in tickets,” said Graves.
Students noted that they’ve seen an increase in ticketing, but this was not Public Safety’s intent, according to Reca.
He said, “The reason I think there’s a perception of more ticketing is because of these decals. A lot of people are trying to duck the fee, so with that, when we don’t see a decal, we have to ticket because that means you didn’t pay your fee, and you know, you’re parking illegally.”
Graves explained she received her hardship pass for the spring semester, but Public Safety only waived some of her tickets, leaving her about $500 to pay.
Both Graves and senior political science major Sophia Berrio park in the sorority parking lot and felt targeted by Public Safety.
Berrio said, “Last semester, I got hit with three tickets … so I had to pay $700 and I didn’t even know where I was gonna get that $700. Public Safety kept coming into the lot, and they would keep ticketing me and the rest of my sisters and everyone else in the sorority lot, which I thought was really unfair.”
Graves expressed the importance of clear and timely communication between students and public safety to avoid receiving multiple tickets.
“I wish that Rider, in general, was more proactive about stuff like this. First generation students like myself and students who are navigating college by themselves don’t even know about the hardship pass. I didn’t even know until one of my friends told me, so I wish they had a program or a resource page to know about it.”
According to Reca, on Jan. 31 he met with the Student Government Association to discuss and plan potential improvements to Rider parking with more updates to come.