Student’s Have Parking Permit Issues

The first week of classes bring parking permit issues for students.

Sophie Davenport, The Growl Editor

There are usually several students every semester that start classes without purchasing a parking permit. Most often this is because students wait until the “last minute” to purchase one. And some of those students who waited until the “last minute” to purchase a permit don’t receive the type of permit they applied for because they are sold out. This is no one’s, fault but the person who forgot or refused to buy a parking permit. Yet, classes started Monday and many students were still without appropriate parking permits. This was not due to procrastination. When students went online to Bloomsburg University’s Permit Store to purchase a permit, none were available.

Hearing that many students had difficulty purchasing a parking permit, I went to the BU police office to find some answers. Unfortunately, the BU police would not answer any of my questions and instead directed me to the Senior Director of Strategic Communications, Tom McGuire. McGuire was able to offer answers.

According to McGire, the software program that the BU police use to issue and record parking permits, Iparq, malfunctioned. The software system mistakenly showed that all parking permits were sold out. BU police identified the problem, realizing that all the parking permits could not have sold out that quickly. BU police had Iparq fix the problem.

The issue is now solved, and students are able to purchase a parking permit. However, students were not made aware of the initial software malfunction and were left in the dark. To the best of my knowledge, BU police never sent out a mass email to inform students about the parking permit mishap. Some students who were not able to receive a parking permit due to the system malfunction and got punished for it. Emily Martelliti, a senior Biology major was one of those students, “The parking passes were sold out, so I wasn’t able to get one, but I got a parking ticket. So, it doesn’t make sense if BU knows about this issue, we shouldn’t be getting punished for it.”

As of August 26th, the number of commuter lots still available are as follows: black lot (behind the library) 250, purple lot (near the Bloomsburg hospital) 180, orange lot (upper campus) 70, maroon lot (upper campus) 40. There are also some residential lots still available, green lot has 10 permits let and orange lot has 40.

Being a senior who commutes, I know to purchase parking permits in advance. This semester I purchased my permit weeks before classes started. Yet, students who are not familiar with purchasing a permit usually don’t plan that far ahead. It was unfair for students to be left unaware of the Iparq system malfunction. I think BU police should have informed students of the problem and made them aware of how to obtain a permit. It would have been easy to simply send out a mass email informing students of the situation. Instead, many students were unaware of the issue, didn’t receive a parking permit, and wondered why they weren’t able to.