<p>We moved our son in this past weekend to UT Austin. Very exciting until we got a parking ticket for parking in a 'faculty parking only' zone. REALLY on move in weekend ?? On the small print of our parking pass it said to only park in the designate parking garages or between the "Loading Zone" signs. I had no clue. Cars kept pulling into the empty spots the whole day. The campus police quietly kept going up and down the street giving out tickets. Heck we pay $30,000 a year to send our kids here and they need another $50 for a ticket. It put a REALLY bad taste in my mouth about UT. :(</p>
<p>I hear you. Parking ticket fines after paying their tuition bills is like adding salt to an open wound.</p>
<p>When you have a campus of 50,000+ students, parking is a real problem. UT has always been VERY strict about parking. And your parking pass DID state the rules. I’m sorry you got a ticket, but I don’t think you can blame the University for that.</p>
<p>We got three parking tickets the first time we moved in. Got it down to two the other years. My parents considered it the cost for the convenience of parking curbside instead of having to haul my stuff from the parking structure down the block. Annoying, but they do it so people don’t dawdle parked on the curb so other people can have that convenience, too.</p>
<p>I was in the spot for less than 10 minutes. We just needed to find out where his room was in Jester. You think the police would have just told us to move. They saw us parking there. They waited until we got out of the car and then wrote the ticket. They were out casing the parking spots on the street - we were in a faculty parking zone - please tell me what faculty were there during move in weekend …</p>
<p>was there any room to make a case to get out of the ticket ? It is just the principal of the thing - I’d rather have them make me make a donation to a local charity instead of the campus police.</p>
<p>Oh and by the way, my son went to Texas A&M last year and they were pretty lenient about parking as long as you were not in a fire zone or by a fire hydrant. This is his sophomore year - first year at UT. Not liking it so far.</p>
<p>I have to say – as a New Yorker, I was convinced I’d be ticketed for leaving the rental car in front of D’s dorm at Emory in the unloading zone, but it was there, unoccupied, hazards on, for 45 minutes – no ticket.</p>
<p>I would send a complaint letter along with copies to housing when I paid the ticket. That’s just ridiculous!</p>
<p>I hear you, too.
Although it isn’t fair to say “you had no clue”. When you see a sign that says “Faculty Only” and you’re not faculty, that is a clue, a darn good clue. The principle? You knowingly chose to park in a lot marked faculty only, but gripe because you got a ticket. You want to “get out of a ticket” that you know was written properly? That’s principled? Just my opinion, but I would think principled would be accepting the the consequences of wrongful parking. You might say- they could have overlooked your illegal parking, but you know their response would be- you shouldn’t have parked illegally. I’d agree you have a right to complain about the policy for in the future, but on this one, you knew you were in the wrong.</p>
<p>I can understand they might have given you the courtesy of overlooking it. One can ask for a courtesy, one can hope for it, but one cannot expect it. The principle is they gave you a ticket you deserved. Although I agree it is an awfully strict policy that imo should be relaxed move-in day, but it wasn’t. </p>
<p>Maybe you could call on the issuing office, or if student was recruited for academics or athletics, you might call on admissions to see if it can be waived. No harm in trying. They might have influence, not based on “principle”, but rather based on courtesy of a guest helping student move in.</p>
<p>When I first read the title, I thought for sure it was NYU. I think it is a bit harsh to give out tickets on the move in day. Way to cultivate relationship - just deduct your donation by the ticket amount.</p>
<p>I know a kid who was moving into Columbia’s law school a few weeks ago. He was amazed to witness what happens on “alternate side of the street parking”. All the owners were in their cars and moved over when the street cleaner passed, then they went back to their spot. But this kid had a truck and had keep moving. </p>
<p>Finally, he found a quiet spot and called his mom, my friend, for a little sympathy. Nope, he didn’t get a parking ticket, he got a ticket for being on a cell phone! As a new law student, he figured this gives him a chance to go to court, but I hate to break it to him. That may be even more infuriating.</p>
<p>i would not pay it unless I was in the students car. What are they going to do?</p>
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OP-I am sorry you got a ticket during move in. So you don’t like UT because you got a ticket or because you have to move your son from A&M to Austin?
A&M is in a college town while UT is in the state capital. I would think the amounts of traffic and parking space will be very different between the two schools. We were in UT this weekend to move our S in. The green check-in sheet your S received states clearly the parking rules and the parking zone where you can unload for an hour. We were able to unload the car within one hour and then my H moved the car to the nearby garage for the rest of day.</p>
<p>D1’s school had her choose a time to show up at her dorm. A half hour window. You had to pull up, right in front, and unload everything in the car. Then, the parents were told to re-park the car in the main lot and walk over if they wished. </p>
<p>Upperclass athletes, who were at school a week early, helped to unload the cars and carry things into the dorms. We (parents) carried NOTHING! Oh, I was in love with that policy.</p>
<p>D2’s school simply opened the big lot around the freshman dorms, opened up all the fire exits, and let you unload however you wished. You were directed to park in front of the dumpster or whatever, if that was the only space left. No upperclass athletes (art school) but a few people around willing to help. There was a very long line just to get into the lot so I prefer the appointment method of D1’s school (a state school in WV).</p>
<p>For UT Austin, watch out! There are probably more fines coming, whenever they can slither along to give them out. Be wary. A friend works at UF and told me that the campus police wait one month and then start giving out tickets to every car in the student lot that doesn’t have Florida plates. They expect you to follow the letter of the law and re-register and re-insure your car in Florida. They must make money this way, and more money from all the tickets.</p>
<p>Tufts had a pretty nice arrangement. You basically pulled up in front of the dorm and a bunch of kids helped bring up everything up. I’m pretty sure though that when my son moved out I parked in a faculty parking space reasoning that since classes were over they probably weren’t all around. I do think it would be nice if colleges would figure out a way to make it easy to move in and out. Faculty probably* don’t* need the spaces on the prime move-in days.</p>
<p>Well, think about what you would have donated to UT over the years and don’t donate $150 of that money. That’ll teach 'em…</p>
<p>What you can do to avoid it in the future is to have a driver stay with the car the entire time. You can take turns hauling stuff into the dorm, but if you have to move the car, someone is always with the car to do it.</p>
<p>We had the same experience as sunnydayfun last year. I’d forgotten about the green sheet - now I remember seeing the rules on there.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel better, as a faculty member at a similar university, who pays almost $70/month for the privilege of parking my car 15 minutes from my office, I too would also get a ticket and/or my car towed if I were to park in the wrong location. </p>
<p>In fact, I can one up you! I once came in on a Sunday of a long weekend in the summer, with a leg in cast, parked in a reserved spot of an empty parking lot behind my building so as to drop off a huge bundle of files…and yes, in 10 minutes I had a lovely whopping ticket on my window.</p>