Issue: The Parking and Traffic Committee recently lowered parking fines by $15.

Parking tickets have been lowered from $50 to $35. We’re glad the Parking and Traffic Committee has realized charging $50 for a parking ticket is absurd; however, there’s still a long way to go. The fine should be even lower.

As Students’ Association Sen. Anthony Sutton, one of the chairs of the committee, said, most students would like to see the fines at $10. We think that’s a fair amount to pay. We’d even agree that $15 is a fair.

The problem is that some people on the committee, like Craig Welbon, a Career Service employee representative, don’t think a price in that lower range is enough of a deterrent to illegal parking.

We disagree. No one likes getting a ticket, no matter what the price. A fine of $10 or $15 is a lot of money, especially for college students. We doubt fines in that price range will lead to a wave of students who wouldn’t normally take a chance parking illegally deciding to risk it.

There are always a few people who are going to try to get away with parking in the wrong lot or without a tag; however, these people are the type that would do it anyway, regardless of the price. This is why a parking fine above $15 does not deter illegal parking any further.

Stance: A fine of $10 is enough money to act as a deterrent, and anything more than $15 seems like an unreasonable amount to pay for a parking fine. We thank the committee for making progress toward reasonable fines. But they should continue to work toward lowering it more.

Editorial Board:

Tony Gorder, Editor-in-Chief

Emma DeJong, Managing Editor

Elizabeth Reiss, Opinion Editor

The editorial board meets and agrees on the issue of the editorial. The editorial represents the opinion of The Collegian.