Campus police have different rules of the road
Police at Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College have both been handing out many tickets, in the process often collecting money from low-income students, for reasons that are sometime ridiculous.
This higher volume of tickets could be due to the fact there are a few regulations about parking that many students and visitors are not aware of. It seems like both Saddleback and IVC keep changing the polices, making it hard for the average student to keep up.
One often-unknown parking rule is that students and staff members are not allowed to backup or go straight through a spot. All parking must be head in parking only. However, this is rule is not stated on the parking website. Backing up into a space or driving thru a space will allow the campus police to ticket students or staff with a $20 citation.
“I parked head in not knowing I couldn’t and I was then told by a friend not too,” said Chanel Tsai, 19, undecided. “I’ve seen some ridiculous drivers [that do] not get tickets.”
Another rule is that the same parking permit may be used even when driving another vehicle. Most likely, a campus police offer will not check every single vehicle to make sure that permit belongs to that car. If the permit is then left in that car when switching over to the other vehicle, head down to the campus police station for a free temporary permit.
A more recent change was made about a year ago when the traditional grace period was taken away. Saddleback and IVC once allowed students to park for free for the first two weeks of school. This has now been eliminated, mostly likely due to the over-crowdedness of the parking lots.
Of course many rules are just common knowledge and are therefore easy to follow. Just read the sign (if readable) and don’t speed.
“I think the rules are pretty simple,” said Basha Jamil, 19, political science. “As long as you have a pass and don’t park in staff parking lots.”