Know Your Rights: Campus Parking

Published April 25, 2007

By Nicole Vincent-Roller

If you’ve ever had a significant other visit you from another school, or maybe just a drop-out friend who’s trying to mooch off your scholastic lifestyle (without the, you know, scholastics), you’ve probably run into the parking issue.

For those freshmen and sophomores living on campus especially, even if you can figure out what to do with your guests, their cars are often another issue entirely.

On-campus overnight parking options are limited, especially on weeknights, and sooner or later your guests will probably be tempted to call in that one freebie (also known as a warning) that the omnipresent Transportation and Parking Services guy or gal hands out on the first offense, and just park in whatever lot is most convenient—windshield sticker be damned.

After your guests have done this once or twice, finally getting the warning and then maybe even a ticket, they will probably ask the all-important question: What power do these people even have to make me pay this?

As it turns out, very little. Because the lots are the property of UVM and not the city of Burlington, the offense is against the institution, not the state—so if you aren’t affiliated with UVM, the only power they have to make you pay up is pretty-please with sugar on top.

After your third ticket (not including the initial warning), the nice people over and at the Transportation and Parking Services department will send your license plate number to Police Services, and they will pull your file to make sure you aren’t a member of the University. As long as the car is registered to a non-affiliate and you don’t rack up an absurd number of ignored tickets (for the first five or so you’re safe, but eventually they will get fed up and tow you), you’re essentially off the hook

If, on the other hand, they find during this check that you are in fact a student here, you’re screwed. Once they realize you’re a member of the UVM community, the outstanding balance incurred by your tickets is immediately transferred from the kind people over on Trinity to the registration-barring, transcript-withholding gremlins over at Student Accounting in the basement of Waterman.

Even if you’re a graduating senior who doesn’t need access to registration or your transcript, if you don’t pay the school back for your prohibited parking acts and you file your taxes in the state of Vermont, they will have the outstanding balance drawn from your tax refund the following year.

So, as far as the rules go, if you’re a non-UVM student and you don’t rack up too many tickets, you can basically use your citations as scrap paper.

If you’re a UVM student but (and this is important, here) have a car that isn’t currently registered with Transportation and Parking Services, you essentially have one warning and two freebie tickets before they catch up with you.

That’s the university’s take on it, anyway. Keep in mind, however, that even if you don’t get caught by the ticket-guy (and seriously, he’s everywhere) if one of your permit-buying peers notices that someone is regularly bogarting a spot in their lot without paying for it, they probably wouldn’t be above egging your usurping wheels. So ask yourself: What costs more—a parking permit, or a new paint job?

The Water Tower is not responsible for any actions or interactions you have with law enforcement. Please think before you act and act responsibly. We offer you our best research, however, The Water Tower is not an attorney.

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