Andrew Doxy and his housemates, Oswego State seniors, have been collecting parking tickets on the wall of their living room since the spring 2016 semester. In total, they have received 18 tickets, totaling $360 in fees.

What started as a joke soon became “too real” as they realized how quickly the tickets were adding up.

“Some of the tickets I know I deserve, but the others were results of situations I felt like I couldn’t avoid,” Doxy said.

On-campus parking is separated into three different parking zones: Residential students, employees and commuter students. Residential parking is split into four different areas, west, east, central and The Village parking. Everyone who parks on campus must have a permit that they are assigned to, depending on where they live and their relation to the school.

According to the Director of Oswego State’s Parking Office, Vicky Tesoriero, most of the complaints that the office receives is that there is not enough commuter parking.

“There is enough commuter parking but it’s not where people want it to be,” Tesoriero said.

In the most recent count, there were 2,429 commuter parking permits given this year, yet only 1,389 parking spots available on campus, including handicapped and reserves spots in these designated areas.

University Police’s Lieutenant Matthew Barbeau admits parking is inconvenient but there are enough spaces. 

In total, there are 5,002 parking spots including 357 reserved spots and 136 handicap spots on-campus. This year, 8,016 permits that were given out.

Each time drivers do not park in their designated area which correlates with their permit, they receive a ticket from University Police. When people park in a handicapped or no parking zone, the fine is $75. When people park in a spot outside of their zone, they receive a $20 fine.

Usually parking tickets are given out when people do not follow their designated zones. Most of the time commuters will take their chances and park in employee lots in order to be closer to the buildings, Barbeau said.

“I can understand the frustration but we try to do the best we can,” Barbeau said. “Everyone’s solution is build more parking lots but it is not that easy. The great thing about SUNY Oswego is the campus and you don’t want to start throwing concrete all over everything. If you start putting concrete in every green space you have, it is not going to be a beautiful campus anymore. It would just be a big parking lot and that really doesn’t look good.”

If students do not pay off the fine it can get transferred to their student bill and restrict them from registering for classes.

The number of parking tickets received has increased 1,414 tickets since 2014, yet the number of parking permits have remained relatively the same throughout the past three years.

Junior and student-ticket-writer Matthew Prawel is employed by University Police to walk or ride around campus to look for parking violations and issue tickets.

According to Prawel, he writes about 80 to 100 tickets a day and he has to mark down how many tickets he issues in a log.

“There is no quota but I have to write down how many tickets I get, so they know how many I get,” Prawel said. “If I work a four-hour shift and only get 40 tickets, they are probably going to ask me something.”

Prawel said it is not out of the ordinary to have a student curse or stickup a middle finger at him during a shift, although he has learned to avoid the times when classes let out.

“I don’t like being sworn at every day, but for me, I think I am doing a good job because I hate when people know they are not supposed to park somewhere but they do it anyway,” Prawel said.

Barbeau said it all comes down to planning and getting to campus ahead of time in order to find a spot.

“We’ve had mothers call because their child can’t get to class and she was going to pull him out because he couldn’t find a parking spot,” Barbeau said. “Sure it is inconvenient but it is a lot better than years ago when the only lot to park in was the Romney lot and commuters had to take the bus.”

In 2004, Lot 32 was built in the back toward Route 104 between Culkin and Funnelle Hall that holds 236 parking spots. In 2013, a parking lot was built on the side of Shineman Science Center, Lot 8, that holds 118 parking spots. Both lots are designated for commuters.

According to Tesoriero, these parking spots were built after the administration saw there was a clear demand for it from commuters but, as of now, there is no discussion about building a new parking lot.

“Right now I think the parking is really good,” Tesoriero said. “We have the right parking for the people who need it. Right now there are people who want to park where they are not supposed to, not because there is not enough space.”

In terms of his own experience, Doxy disagrees. After being ticketed in a designated overflow area for commuters, he thinks there is a better system that can be more beneficial to students.

“It would be nice to park on campus without being ticketed and without having to walk at least a half mile to get to your class,” Doxy said.

After going from parking lot to parking lot for his job, Prawel has observed that there is available space for more parking opportunities.

“I think we have a lot of unused space that can be used for parking lots that can ease up the tickets,” Prawel said. “There should be more parking available. I think if they put a commuter lot by the library, Lanigan and Mahar.”

In a given parking lot there are not only spaces designated for that zone but there are handicapped and reserved spots.

According to the American Disability Act (ADA), accessible parking spots must connect to the shortest possible accessible route to the building or facility that it serves.

On-campus parking consists of certain lots, such as the Lanigan Hall lot, that is closest to the building which has 14 out of 18 spots that are handicap spots with the remaining two spots as reserved.

Where separate parking facilities serve the same building or entrance, accessible spaces may be grouped together, as long as the number of spaces provided is determined according to each of the separate parking facilities, according to the ADA.

This is why Lot 11, across from the Onondaga Hall field does not have any handicap parking spots.

Reserved spots on-campus are typically for employees, specifically Residence Life and Housing staff members, according to Tesoriero.

In order to receive a reserved spot, it must be approved by the Parking Committee, which meets once a month and is made up of faculty members and students.

“ResLife members have reserved spots because it is the equivalent them pulling into their driveways,” Tesoriero said. “They live there. Students live there too but the difference is that it is not their permanent address.”

Other reserved parking spots on campus include administrators’ parking by Culkin Hall. The Oswego State president and vice president’s reserved spots are placed in front of the handicapped spots which is not “shortest possible route” to Culkin Hall.

Although the Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Mitch Fields does not know why these spots are in front of the handicapped spots, he said that the Culkin Hall parking lot is going to be redone in the next couple of years.

Every time a ticket is paid or permits are purchased, it brings in revenue for the school. During the 2015-2016 academic year, the school received $401,000 from permits and $166,000 from parking tickets.

The cost of permits is $120 for an annual pass for all students and employees. According to Tesoriero, these rates are set because they are based on the fees that other college’s charge.

SUNY Brockport charges $145 for annual student and employee passes, Farmingdale State College charges $30 for permits and SUNY Cortland charges $130 for annual parking passes but less for part-time students.

According to the Chief Communication Officer Wayne Westervelt, this money goes back into parking and into the facilities services budget.

“All registration and parking permit revenue collected is put back into the parking program in the form of maintenance and repairs, signage, snow removal and, et cetera,” Westervelt said.

According to Fields, 90 percent of the facilities services budget goes toward paying salaries of permanent and temporary workers. Since Oswego State is the second snowiest campus in the county next to Michigan Tech, it requires a lot of resources during the winter months.

“It is a bigger challenge at this school,” Fields said. “During the winter months we add 12 more members to staff in order to upkeep snow removal. For 24 hours, they drive around and they keep on moving. They get out of the truck, they high-five and the next person get into the truck and they keep driving around, plowing.”

The activity in a given lot determines when that lot gets plowed, Fields said.

“There is a whole protocol to what lots get plowed first and unfortunately the resident halls get plowed last and I think part of that is because the cars don’t move as much,” Fields said. “It is really based on a logic around who shows up when, which is why employee lots are usually plowed first because they are the ones that get to campus first.”