Memo
TO: George Fox University Public Safety Department
FROM: Vladimir Salas Moreno, Intercultural Resource Center Intern
DATE: March 3, 2021
SUBJECT: Parking Passes and Ticketing
OPENING:
The reason for this memo is to inform the Public Safety Department of the consequences of the policies in place and enforced by the department. Specifically the distribution of parking passes and the enforcement of ticketing on campus; there have been a number of complaints by students, faculty, and community members. Below I have stipulated the concerns and potential solutions by changing the policies.
CONCERNS:
I am writing this letter to the leadership of George Fox University to formally request that you change the ticketing policy. The policy itself has been damaging to the student population as it has affected them economically. Students are not financially equipped to pay for parking passes or pay tickets. The cost of attendance at this institution is around $55,000 per semester, financial aid and other scholarships cover a majority of the costs yet many students have to take out loans to make ends meet and attend this university. It is a huge financial expenditure as well as the cost to maintain a vehicle. With a vehicle, you have to pay for insurance to be on the road legally in case of an accident. You have to use the money to pay for gas so that it can stay on, as well as pay for any components that it needs. There is also cost in case of needed repairs or needed modifications to the car. For a student to attend university and maintain a car is an excessive amount of money for anyone who doesn’t pertain to a certain economic level that many do not have who attend this university. With this economic burden at play, the Public Safety Department still allows itself to charge students for the right to park s well as ticketing those who cannot afford to pay for a pass. The tickets themselves only go up in value when ticket the same car more, it starts at twenty-five dollars and can go up to even two-hundred and fifty dollars. This added expense is nowhere in the budget for any college student trying to stay on course and graduate. Something has to change as the students at Fox are not satisfied with the present policies in place.
ALTERNATIVES:
The issue itself is multi-layered and requires different alternatives to try and fix the issue. Potential alternatives to paying for a ticket and/or pass could be community service at the school; not necessarily using money but our own time to mitigate the cost. As well as implementing a first come first serve to hand out a specific number of passes at the beginning of each semester. Allowing students to park on the public streets without fear of being ticketed by the school.
