Milly Jackson
Many FSC students fail to purchase parking permits, hindering campus safety and security’s ability to prepare for student parking needs. There is an abundant lack of students registering their vehicles, yet many more complain about parking issues on campus. The two are related, and one cannot be resolved unless the other is corrected.
“The goal of our unit is not to write tickets, our goal is to have 100% compliance with the parking rules,” Eric Rauch, director of campus safety and security said.
With the lack of parking permits purchased, the safety office has cracked down and has begun to issue citations for failure to register vehicles more strictly than the beginning of the semester. Their goal is not to catch students and rack up charges; they are only attempting to educate students on the importance of purchasing parking permits.
If the FSC student body truly wishes to do something about parking issues on campus, registering their vehicles is a perfect first step in working with campus safety to create more parking on campus and ensure the safety of all students.
“Registering your vehicle is important for the safety of students on campus. If students have their vehicles registered, it makes things easier for safety,” Freshman Taylor Mims said.
Regarding the safety aspect of parking, Rauch explained that if vehicles are not registered on campus, security is blind to which cars belong on campus and which do not. This is a security risk because in emergency situations it may be vital to understand what vehicles are owned by students and which are foreign quickly and accurately.
Even with a good number of students registering their vehicles, with over 25,00 students, according to the FSC website, without complete compliance the count of parking needed on campus will be inaccurate, and more importantly, the safety of students will be harmed.
In the Roux library parking lot alone, on a walk-through survey of purchased permits, out of 168 vehicles, about 11% of the cars in the lot were not registered. Even accounting for visitors or other non-students, there were still many cars that more than likely belonged to unregistered students.
“If we don’t know how many parking spaces we need, it’s impossible for us to plan for it,” Rauch said.
Purchasing parking tickets for vehicles on campus is vital first for student safety, but also to begin fixing the parking problem because without an accurate census of permits Campus Safety cannot prepare for the correct amount of parking needed for vehicles brought on campus each year. Parking permits can be purchased online through the FSC Portal and picked up at the security office easily and quickly. If all students were to take this step, parking on campus would begin to improve steadily.
