We have all seen them, some of us have even gotten them… the boot.
DPS has been prowling our campus this semester, booting vehicles left and right. How do you get a boot? By receiving three or more parking violations and neglecting to pay them, and the only way to get the boot off is to pay all of your tickets at once (potentially adding up to thousands of dollars). The Catholic University campus has no public parking lots or designated visitor parking. You probably wouldn’t have known this, seeing as there are no visible signs on campus that explain this information.
I spoke to Public Safety recently and they explained that all parking lots on campus are private, including the DuFour center, the Admissions office, and the Basilica. Rules provided by Public Safety regarding parking are extremely unclear. Public Safety informed me that for certain Athletic Events, parking becomes more lenient, but the University does not provide information explaining which events do and which do not. The Mullen Library requests that students pay parking meters, even students who have a parking pass. The Basilica parking lot is a National Shrine which is open to the public, but when individuals neglect to pay meter at the basilica, DPS boots them. Shouldn’t the parking violations of a public shrine be a concern of the D.C. city police?
The only area near the school that is considered public parking is Harewood road. Harewood road provides free three hour parking, but is far from safe. On January first of this year a student parked her car on Harewood road for two hours. Upon returning to her vehicle the student found her window shattered, her backpack and macbook gone. The problem with Public Safety’s ecent strictness regarding parking is that they are leaving students who commute or live off campus no choice but to purchase a parking pass. Purchasing a parking pass wouldn’t be an issue if parking passes were realistically affordable.
A Catholic University parking pass for a non resident student is $1,715 for the fall semester, this allows for unlimited surface parking but does not allow for unlimited night parking. A parking pass for non resident students at the University of South Florida is $90 per semester for unlimited daytime parking. A parking pass at the University of Maryland for unlimited parking during the fall semester is $309 for resident students, and only $106 for off campus students. American University parking passes for resident students are $506 per semester for unlimited parking.
Public Safety, and Catholic University, need to consider how rightful their decision to boot vehicles is. Are students who choose not to purchase passes really causing such an extreme violation? Are students deserving of such harsh punishment when rules and regulations are so unclear?