[media-credit name=”Patrick Halloran” align=”alignnone” width=”500″][/media-credit]

Students with legitimate Hilltop parking decals are frustrated due to the lack of available parking spots. Throughout the semester, many students have been wrongfully parking in the Hilltop parking lot on the Mount Carmel campus, according to Parking and Transportation Coordinator Shanon Grasso.

“We have a lot of students who are not following the parking rules,” Grasso said. “People who are not assigned to Hilltop, want to be in Hilltop… I think currently we also have a bunch of freshmen with unregistered vehicles who brought something back.”

Grasso also said that fraudulent Hilltop decals are out of control this year.

“This year, this sophomore class has taken it to a whole new level,” Grasso said, “I think for every one that I remove, I would guess there are five more behind it.”

There are upwards of 30 Hilltop decals that were never picked up from the Public Safety office, Grasso said while holding the stack of unclaimed passes. She stressed that if someone is not going to bring a car, they should not register one. If the decal isn’t picked up, it is essentially taking away a spot from a fellow student.

“If you’re not going to bring a car, don’t register one because you are only hurting your peer,” Grasso said.

Upperclassmen registering other students’ cars under their name is also a problem this year, according to Grasso. It is common for a student to give his or her parking privileges to a friend, but what many do not understand is that the account holder is still responsible for the vehicle, even if they do not own it.

“Let’s say you register Joe Schmo’s car, Joe Schmo gets a ticket, you’re on the hook for it,” she said. “And then all of a sudden, there is a hold on your account and you’re screaming, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t even have a car here’… A lot of people don’t take the time to read the parking rules, but after three tickets, you’re going on a tow list. After five, you could lose your parking.”

Sophomore Justin Arndt, who has a York Hill garage decal, said he can empathize with students who wrongfully park in the Hilltop lot.

“I see why [students with York Hill decals] do it because it shouldn’t take half an hour to get your car,” Arndt said. “What is the point of having a car on campus when you have to take a shuttle to get to your car?”

Senior Juan Roldan said that a lack of available spots is a recurring issue for him.

“I came back late at night to park my car at Hilltop several times this semester and there haven’t been spaces available for me to utilize,” Roldan said. “I think as a senior resident assistant with clinicals, this situation is very inconvenient and can easily be avoided.”

Roldan also has a friend who was told by Public Safety to park in the York Hill garage because the lot on the Mt. Carmel campus was full.

While the Department of Public Safety is looking for a solution to the parking problem, the non-functioning gate on the way up to Hilltop will not be part of the fix. In fact, the gate’s arm has been removed due to past damage.

“That is something that we used to use and, just like the one at facilities, every day it would be broken,” Grasso said. “Every single day. People would drive through it or they would break it or they would just back in, it was crazy. And it is expensive to fix. It was just a daunting thing.”

For students who cannot find a parking spot in the Hilltop lot, Grasso is instructing students to park in North Lot, but they need to move it by the morning. However, she is open to new ideas from the Quinnipiac community.

“This is the time of year administrators will start talking about parking for next year. And I welcome any new ideas,” Grasso said.