To school officials at UTM, parking is apparently not a problem, but that's only because they have a “staff” sticker on their windshields.

The reason parking isn’t a problem to school officials may be due to the that fact that there is never a shortage of staff parking places. It seems that you will hardly ever see a staff parking lot full and if it so happens you do, the majority of cars will be littered with those infamous “bleepin” yellow ticket envelopes.

I know every student that parks his/her car on campus has probably gotten at least a few tickets or knows a few people that have.

Rachel McKee, a junior communications major, from Millington, says “parking is ridiculous, I’ve already gotten six tickets this semester.” So, where does all the money we're paying for these parking tickets go?

One thing’s for sure its not going towards improving the student-parking association on campus. In 1998, the parking lot behind the heat plant was built and finally paved in 2000, but had a huge pothole in the middle of it up until just a few weeks ago. Just with the money I have paid in parking ticket in my four years at UTM, a huge parking lot could have been built!

The one thing we can't complain about is the price of the actual parking permit. At schools like UT Knoxville, Ole Miss, and Kentucky parking permit prices can range to over $200 for students.

Last year, parking stickers at UTM were only $20 and this year they were increased to a whopping $26 which is still only about 1/8 of what some other schools have to pay.

Currently at UTM, the Engineering Dept. is evaluating the parking situation and trying to develop a plan to add additional on-campus parking. The only problem besides the expenses of new parking areas is the limited space available on and around campus.

There is a Parking Authority Committee here at UTM that meets once per semester if you have any suggestions on what could be done to make your walk a little bit shorter. If you have any questions as to where and when you can make comments and suggestions, you can contact Chief Richard Hatler, Office of Public Safety.

Some of my suggestions for getting more additional parking on campus include: building a parking garage, widening streets around campus to add parking places, and cutting down on a little staff parking!

Whatever it may be, something is going to have to be done in the near future. I realize that building a new parking lot or a parking garage would be very costly, but there is a lot of money paid for tuition, parking stickers, and parking tickets by UTM students.

But it would be nice to see our money being put to use; it would be nice if you could find a decent parking place within a mile of campus, too.

Please, understand that this article was not written as an attack on any staff members.

I do realize that students are constantly parked in your designated parking areas and I’m sure this doesn’t make you too happy.

Hopefully, this will also give you, as a faculty member, the incentive to voice your opinion on the parking issue here at UTM.

Daniel Webb is a senior Communications major from Jackson.