During the 2013 calendar year, the Grand Valley Police Department issued 20,244 parking violation tickets on the Allendale and Pew campuses.

“Grand Valley State is a permit-only campus, which means you have to have a permit to park on any of the lots on campus,” said Capt. Brandon DeHaan, assistant director of DPS. “Those who do not have a permit are often cited for that.”

In fact, 9,032 citations last year were issued because the violator did not possess a parking permit at all.

Improper parking violations are the second most common issued at GVSU, with a total of 4,523 citations. These tickets are given if a vehicle with a residential permit is parked in a commuter lot or vice versa. Tickets in this category may also be issued if vehicles with student permits are found in faculty only lots during business hours.

The category with the third highest number of violations were those for expired meters with a total of 3,510 citations issued throughout the year.

“People either don’t pay the meters, park at failed/out-of-order meters or don’t put enough coins in for the allotted time that their vehicle will be parked there,” said Deon Atkins, a student employed by GVPD to enforce parking. “Meters are enforced 24/7.”

Tickets issued for not displaying a permit, having an improper permit and parking at expired meters each collect a $20 fine. Others collect a $15 fine, including tickets issued to vehicles parked in roadways, in front of buildings or outside building entrances. It is a $50 fine for parking in a handicap spot illegally. Revenue generated from tickets goes to the university’s general fund, DeHaan said.

Austin Engerson, a criminal justice major at GVSU, is a former traffic employee and currently works for building security. He said one mistake many students make is believing they cannot receive tickets during nights and weekends.

“Any reserved areas, such as service vehicle parking, emergency vehicle parking or food service parking, cannot be parked in at anytime without the proper permit,” Engerson said.

Atkins said tickets are mostly the result of a lack of awareness among students, but the knowledge is available.

“In my opinion from my own experience, the majority of the tickets written occur during the beginning of the academic school year because new people arrive and are unaware of the rules and ordinances of the university,” Atkins said. “Many issues occur due to a lack of people reading their parking permit pamphlets that are mailed to them.”

Students who receive a parking ticket are able to go through an appeal process that is available online. For more information regarding the different types of permits available or to appeal a parking ticket, visit the GVPD website at www.gvsu.edu/gvpd.