My fifty cents

"Appeal Note Code: Knowingly parking at an inoperable meter or pay station is a violation. Judgment Decision: Call [Parking and Transportation Services] at 684-PARK at time of meter/pay station malfunction. This citation has been upheld by the Appeals Committee. Payment is due upon receipt."

Knowingly parking at an inoperable meter is a violation? Whose responsibility is it to provide working parking meters? And what if that was the only lot one could park in during an emergency, as I had that day? When, not just one, but ALL the meters are broken, is it my personal responsibility to make a judgment call and choose to wait around for Duke Parking rather than attend to a pressing personal matter?

This is the most ridiculous citation I have received in my years at Duke. Until the administration fixes or at least attempts to fix the plague that is Duke Parking, this will remain but one small fault in a parking system that is failing, and failing MISERABLY.

The shortcoming lies solely on the administration's end of the stick and we, the community, have to suffer for it. There's something to be said for bureaucracy, but bureaucracy only serves to piss people off like those polite little perfunctory reminders they send telling you that you've just been sacked by the University again.

And at the same time they send you the e-mail, they're already preparing to charge the ticket to your Bursar because they sure as hell know no one is going to pay willingly. So they certainly are a clever bunch. And it's almost scary how, as I write this letter, I can't help but feel the all-knowing eye of the administration on my back (just received an email from Duke Parking Services listing the lots open to undergraduates during off hours not to mention where to report equipment malfunctions. ha).

As if that would placate me and all the other students wrongfully cited. I wholeheartedly agree with the Sept. 22 letter to the editor written by a Pratt parent whose son had to choose between either missing class or parking in a lot closed for graduate tenting. If not for a lack of funds cough BC plaza cough, you'd think Duke would build a large enough parking deck to alleviate most or all of its persistent parking problems.

It's sad to say, but my ticket is probably nothing compared to what some of you have received here at our school. The irony here is that not only do I get charged for something out of my control, but I don't even get back the fifty cents I wasted on their f-ed up meter.

Tong Hao