Disputed parking ticket holds up degree

Sheri McWhirter
Photo Editor

SIUE graduates Jim Howell and Catie Stricker are still haunted by their alma mater.

Howell and Stricker, who are engaged to be married, graduated in May, both with unpaid parking tickets that held up their diplomas.

Howell paid his bill shortly after graduation and received his diploma. Stricker did not pay her bill until Nov. 14. When Stricker paid the $86.01, she expected to receive her diploma.

But less than a week later, Stricker instead received a bill from the bursar's office. The statement dated Nov. 18 showed a payment of $86.01 on Nov. 14 and a $15 parking ticket for lot F on May 24.

"I didn't even know where lot F was," Stricker said. "I know I didn't park in any lot after May 6 when I graduated."

Stricker returned to parking services. According to Stricker, employee Kelly Meyers told her lot F is at the Vadalabene Center. Stricker said she told Meyers she had never parked at the Vadalabene Center and Meyers detailed the vehicle to which the ticket was issued.

"She started describing a burgundy GMC truck and I told her that's my fiancˇ's truck, not mine," Stricker said. "She told me that I purchased the sticker for his truck, so I'm liable for all of his parking tickets." Stricker said the sticker she bought for Howell's truck was for the Vadalabene Center parking lot.

"I told her that and she typed a few things, looked at her screen and said, 'Oh, I mean it was in meter parking,' " Stricker said. "I think she changed it right there."

Stricker said she calmly argued that neither she nor Howell had parked on campus since their graduation, and since Howell had a sticker for the Vadalabene Center he would not have parked at a meter.

According to Stricker, Meyers turned her back and stood there, not further acknowledging anything Stricker had to say.

"At that point, I was so frustrated," Stricker said. "Then Carol Kaufman, who was sitting at a desk, said she'd look into it and call me, so I just got out of there."

Stricker received a letter from parking services dated Dec. 4.

The letter said: "Ticket F21464 was issued for meter time expired on meter Lot C (Rendleman). The unpaid ticket was placed on your account at the Office of the Bursar due to the fact that your VC decal for the current year was displayed on this vehicle. When you registered your vehicle, the registration form states that you are responsible for any tickets on the plate or permit."

Along with the letter is a ticket detail report.

"I'm not even sure that's my ticket detail report because my name isn't on it anywhere, the amount due is handwritten and none of my own parking tickets appear on it anywhere, only Jim's," Stricker said. "Plus, parking services told me that because I purchased the sticker, I'm responsible for the fines, but the report they sent me has tickets on his truck dating all the way back to December 1998, long before I bought his sticker."

Howell also questioned why Stricker would be billed for his ticket at this time, but never before.

"I think the only reason parking services is billing Catie is because I've already received my diploma and they can't do anything to me," Howell said. "Besides, I never parked in Lot C and I have a sticker for Lot F, so none of this makes any sense."

Reached Monday after repeated attempts and voice-mail messages last week, parking services Manager Carolyn Turner declined comment.

Her boss, Director of Administrative Services Robert Vanzo, also declined comment on the specifics of the ticket but said, "We should investigate it."

Vanzo added that it is not office policy to ignore people who bring complaints to parking services. "That's highly unusual," Vanzo said. "I'd like to know why that happened."

According to the parking services Web site, 40,603 parking citations were issued last academic year, generating about $500,000. Vanzo said the money is used for regular operations and maintenance costs and to repay bonds for repairing inner roads and parking lots.