This year, 3,575 parking passes were sold to students. Since Sept. 1, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Police Department has issued 825 sheets. A sheet is either a parking ticket or a parking violation warning. Of those sheets, 469 of them were parking tickets and 356 were violation warnings. Incidentally, a majority of the warnings were issued during the first week of the new school year. These warnings are attributed to new students who may not be aware of permit rules and lot locations. According to Scott Marquardt, UW-Platteville Chief of Police, the number of actual parking passes sold last year compared to the number sold this year does not drastically differ. However, students are becoming increasingly frustrated. Sophomore Elizabeth Pratt came out to find a parking ticket under her windshield after parking in one of the student lots covered under the conditions of her parking permit. Confused as to why she had been issued a ticket, she examined it to figure out what she had done wrong. She later realized it was not the make and model of her car, nor her license plate number. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong. Someone must have thought I’d pay for their ticket if they left it on my car,” Pratt said. Marquardt said there are more than enough spaces available, although they may not be located in the most convenient places for students to access. Parking passes will continue to be sold throughout the year, as there is no “cap” put on the number of passes that can be sold. When talking about Lot 21 being switched to allow south parking, Marquardt said, “Asking people from Bridgeway to park in that parking lot is equivalent to asking people in Morrow to walk over there to eat supper.”
