Periscope

Issue date: 1/30/09 Section: News

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It is a crisp winter day in Northwest Georgia. A student strolls to his car after a long day of classes and meetings, not having any idea of about the parking ticket that awaits him at his vehicle, which is parked in the faculty lot.

This scenario is familiar to many Shorter college students. Whether resident or commuter, students know this story all too well and sometimes feel its sting on more than one occasion per semester.

Shorter College's parking situation, like that of many colleges, may seem very problematic as students complain of insufficient spaces.

However, Terry Wheeler, director of Campus Safety, said that there is plenty of parking for everyone at any given time.

Students can find eight types of parking spaces found on Shorter's main campus. These spaces and lots are categorized as commuter, resident, resident Bass, Faculty/Staff, handicap, visitor, library, and specialty personnel.

Overall, 902 parking spaces are available on the Hill. According to Wheeler, that is ample parking for the 1063 students that are currently enrolled at Shorter.

"Not everyone who attends Shorter drives so there are enough spaces for every registered car," said Wheeler. He also said that not everyone is on campus at the same time. The 1063 students include those who only take night classes and other students who are not always on campus during regular class hours, for one reason or another.

According to Wheeler, the parking situation at Shorter College is not out of control.

Many students have been experiencing Campus Safety's "crack down" on parking violations. Wheeler said, "It is important to take more severe actions right now about parking in order to foster good habits in campus drivers." He continued, "This is a relatively small fine. The fine is put in place to encourage compliance and foster responsibility."

On average, 50 tickets are written weekly at Shorter. That figures out roughly to be about 10 per day. The campus safety office has around 22 people on staff, including the four student workers they have this semester. All of these individuals are capable of writing tickets.

However, Wheeler said that he normally writes the majority of tickets.

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