Staff Editorial

Parking tickets don’t seem to help the students

The University clearly doesn’t always have the interest of students in mind. There is clear evidence behind this; the proof lies in the department of Parking and Transportation Services.

Within a span of less than two hours, the department issued more than five tickets to the same few unlucky cars — ticketing some cars more than once in an hour.

Who drove these cars? Well, it just so happened to be students engaging in University-associated activities. Now, here at the editorial board we believe that those who knowingly break University rules should be held responsible for their actions. But what we don’t believe in is picking on those students who are not causing a problem but are contributing to the quality of UH.

This was the case Wednesday night, and many other frustrated students all over campus have also repeatedly brought it to our attention. Another example of the University’s lack of student interests is made clear by their nonexistent sense of urgency when it comes to solving parking problems.

The visitor lot at the front of Lot 16A is almost always out of order. When a visitor arrives at campus and attempts to enter the visitor lot, their $4 is useless because the machine that accepts the toll fee is broken.

Visitors are then left with fewer options, like using the meters along Holman Street or by purchasing another $4 temporary parking pass from the visitor booth located in front of the Alumni and Athletics center.

The visitors then have to compete with the students who are already facing a shortage of parking capacity on campus.

Last night the tickets that were excessively handed out after campus peak hours had ended — at night when temperatures were below freezing — and were a direct assault on students who were doing nothing wrong.

The University needs to address these problems soon. If they don’t, students and visitors will be left with the impression that the employees who distribute these tickets are nothing more than troublemakers who are paid hourly and solely employed for the purpose of generating revenue at the expense of students.

4 Comments

  • Sadly there is only so much land that the university has that they can build a parking lot on. That leaves very few options for solutions to the parking issue. If the school can not expand out wards then the only option is to go up. It might cost more but I am willing to pay for a parking space that should be there than gamble everyday before class trying to find a parking space.

  • How about expanding the university and cleaning up the ghettos that surround the campus? Crush the ghetto and allow UH to expand into those areas.

    Also, UH has a campus in Sugar Land but instead of using it as a satellite it is now tied with WCJC which does students from those areas no good as they can't take classes they need over there and instead have to drive 45 minutes to get to campus plus an additional two or three hours of finding parking.

  • This morning I drove around campus for an hour with a faculty ungated pass looking for a spot. I then parked on the opposite side of campus and worked until 6 am (I’m a grad student). The parking lot I was in was a student parking lot with no time restrictions labeled anywhere and nothing on the website saying otherwise. I come to my car at 6:30 am to surprise a ticket for “late night parking”. UH has no mention of this rule anywhere on their website and it is not listed in the parking lot. I am furious at UH’s blatant attempt to squeeze as much money out of students as possible with absurd fees for nothing! I didn’t pay an extra hundred dollars a year to not get a parking spot and then have the university spit in my face for working my ass off.

    Get your act together UH parking, donations will be going down the toilet if policies like this continue and I am not ashamed to say that this will effect my generosity toward the university in the future.

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