Drivers Beware !

Be careful Ursinus College, or you may be the next victim. There is a trap set here on campus. Like any good hunter’s snare, this one is not easily seen and many have felt the wrath of it. If you “step” into this trap, you may be shaken down for 25 dollars.

No, there is no bully wandering around campus demanding 25 dollars, but there is indeed a trap that has been pilfering money, and feeding the beast we all know as Campus Safety. Unlike verbal taunts or kick balls to the face, this bully is known to get their “kicks” from inattentive drivers in the Ritter parking lot

This trap is set right as one would enter the Ritter parking lot, closest line of spots to New Hall, excluding the handicapped spots. Pictured below, there is a small section there that can comfortably hold tow cars, but wait!? There are no white lines. Every couple days, this trap claims another victim, and 25 more dollars goes to the school.

There are a total of 1,265 total spots on campus, so what is another two more? Last year Campus Safety handed out six-hundred and fifty tickets were handed out. How many are from the Ritter spot aforementioned? Kim Taylor says, “We don’t track that info, but I will guess (the majority of tickets) are from parking in faculty/staff or no registration.”


What bothers some students, more specifically Daryl Downs, UC junior, is the logic behind this spot. Students such as Downs have fallen victim to this trap, and wonder why these specific spots are “off limits.” Downs asks, “Why can’t we just park there? It isn’t in the way of anything . . . It is like they just ran out of white paint and stopped there.”


25 dollars seems to be the going rate on college campuses across Pennsylvania. Parking in a faculty spot with a student registration, and parking improperly in a parking area. For a full listing of the violations and charges, click here to the UC Campus Safety homepage.

It seems no matter where one goes, space is always an issue. Andy Knerr, Lehigh University Junior, keeps his 84’ Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera on campus and would explain the parking situations there as, “Unfair, and inconvenient.” At Lehigh, parking is controlled by both the town of Bethlehem and the Lehigh campus. By the academic buildings Knerr explains, “There is really no open parking, its all staff parking that gets unused … and if we park there it costs 25 dollars or so.” So what do kids do when they drive to class and there are no spots left? They do what many UC students do, “… park somewhere where we aren’t supposed to and hope not to get a ticket.”

Students are not the only ones that have issues with parking. One teacher has been rumored to call campus safety on student who park in the faculty spots. The teacher was reluctant to say, but did admit to calling campus safety on student parking in the faculty spots.
If one feels the need to play Campus Safety officer, there is one site that could make your dreams come true. Click here and feel free to pass out gag parking tickets to your friends… or enemies.