Dear JMU Parking Services...
This letter is not intended to be an attack, but rather a call to action. It is a known concept on the James Madison University campus that parking services are not very well liked. For the longest time, I did not understand what all of the fuss was about until I actually experienced it for myself.
The first day of Maymester this past May I arrived early to campus because I was aware I needed to purchase a parking pass. I parked in a specified 5-minute spot right outside of the parking services office, purchased my parking pass, then proceeded to find a parking spot in the Champions parking deck. As luck would have, I saw one right on the first floor so, of course, I seized the opportunity and took it (partially knowing it was too good to be true). I looked around to see if there was any indication that I was not able to park there, didn't see any, and went on my way to class.
When I got back to my car I was surprised to see a parking ticket on my dashboard, and to be honest, a little irritated. I again looked to see if there were any signs or literally anything saying I was not able to park there, and again didn't see anything that suggested that. What ended up happening was I had parked in the teacher section of the parking deck, and with the commotion of trying to get a parking pass in the first place, I missed the sign on the outside of the building that indicated when commuter parking began.
I didn't have my car on campus this past year and just assumed the whole deck was a free for all with parking. Once I got my parking pass as well, the parking services workers never said anything about not being able to park until a certain point in the deck. I understand it is not their responsibility, but I mean it kind of it. it is their job to ensure we know where we can and cannot park, they should not just assume we know.
With all of this being said, put more signs up around the parking decks! It was only Maymester and not very crowded so obviously if I had seen a sign on the INSIDE of the deck saying I was unable to park there, I would not have taken that spot and would have just parked somewhere else.
I ended up appealing my ticket and included all of this information thinking it would get me out of the ticket. But, no. In my opinion, it would be different if I had knowingly parked there but it was literally the first day I had gotten my parking pass, first time I had had my car on campus, and I wholeheartedly had no idea.
So parking services people, maybe try to be more understanding of us broke college students who are ballin' on a budget here and don't have 75$ to spend on an HONEST MISTAKE??? And put up more signs. It would be greatly appreciated.
Warmly,
A Slightly-Irritated JMU Student
