Campus Safety is going to be heavily enforcing the snow removal policy this winter, resulting in possible tickets and towing fees for students.
Neil White, Campus Safety officer and Saint Mary’s alumnus, said, “It is not our goal to punish the students, our goal is to create a safe driving and parking experience on campus.” Although, Campus Safety will not hesitate to tow cars that have not yet been moved by the time they plow the student lots at 5 p.m.
“Vehicles that are not moved will be towed to the lower road during the snow emergency and assessed a $50 snow removal ticket,” according to the Saint Mary’s Student Handbook. This is a rule that was not always enforced during the 2017 school year.
On days in which heavy snow is expected, Campus Safety will send out a mass email reminding students to move their cars to the faculty and over-flow lots after 3 p.m. Students are expected to not move their cars until this time, as to allow for the faculty and commuters to park in their respective lots at the beginning of the day.
White said there are changes to the snow removal policy this year in an effort to streamline the process. As well as sending out an early morning team to plow the faculty lots on campus, they will also be plowing the overflow lot in an effort to clear up more open spots for students to move to.
With the new effort to plow the overflow lot, comes some more regulation. On the nights before expected snowstorms, students can expect tickets in the overflow lots if they leave their cars overnight.
At 3 p.m. students are expected to move their cars into any of the numbers of plowed lots on campus. If those appear to be filled students are expected to cross Highway 14 and find a spot in the Blue lot.
Alec Rudh, a sophomore at Saint Mary’s, said, “All the lots were full [last year], so I had to go to a coffee house and do my homework, which took me a lot of extra time.” Alec is interested to see how the new plan will help alleviate some of the headaches for students this winter.
Campus Safety believes that with the addition of early morning plowing of the overflow lots there will be more than enough parking for students who are moving their vehicles.
In the event that a student does not move their car in time for the plowing to commence, the car will be towed. For first time offenders, the cars will simply be towed to the lower road and the student will be given a $50 fine.
Campus Safety holds the right to tow vehicles to off-campus tow lots if said car has been repeatedly left in the student lots during snow removal. This will result in a much higher price to pay for offenders.
Many students had voiced concern last year with the way that the snow removal policy worked. Some were worried that 3 p.m. is a very inconvenient time to move vehicles, others questioned whether or not there would be enough space on campus to move all of the vehicles.
Although Campus Safety did not alter the timing of the procedure, they did alter the ability for students to find a parking space on campus.