In connection with to last weeks letter regarding parking passes, I would like her to know she is not the only one who suffers from NKU cadet phobia. This being my last year at NKU, I have decided to splurge a little and park everyday for my last semester in the parking garage. Not only have a spoiled myself with the short walk to BEP building but I have also scheduled all of my classes starting after 9 am. Unfortunately, so has every other student at NKU, which can make parking a little tricky. Like the author to the other editorial, it was a really nice day and the last parking spaces available in the garage were on the top level. As I drove the dizzying circles towards the top, parking spaces were beginning to open up. I decided to try my luck (being the gambler that I am) and look for a spot near the elevator and the steps. What good fortune I have today…a spot in between two handicap spots. I have seen many people park there with no handicap plaquared and there was no indication that was a handicap spot with the wheel chair guy painted on the ground or a sign that said anything about this spot being reserved. Smiling I jump out of my car, grabbed my book bag, and hurried off to class. Later that afternoon, I returned to my car to go home. To my distress, one of those heinous, yellow envelopes was placed gently under my windshield wiper to notify me that I had a ticket. Thinking that possibly I forgot to put my 2003-parking pass in my mirror, I checked my windshield. There, as yellow as the day it was born, was my parking pass hanging in clear view. Puzzled, I picked up the yellow envelope to read exactly what I had done. On the toilet tissue paper ticket, it said I have parked in a handicap spot. Angered but such an accusation, I drove my car to DPS, thinking that they could help me with the situation. I arrived there about 3:30pm and evidentially, the whole campus closes early and everyone goes home because they want too. The only lady in the office told me that the only way the ticket could be removed today was if the cadet that wrote it could take it off. Obviously, my luck was not as good as I thought and the young cadet had left for the day. From there I was told to fill out an appeals form and return tomorrow morning so I could show the DPS officer exactly were I parked. “Fine,” I said. The next day, I returned to show the police officer that I was in no sort of wrong. I showed him the spot and he agreed with me. Even the cars that were parked in the spot had received the tickets that day. He took some pictures and told me that the cadets take their jobs way too seriously but because they want to seem important, they give out tickets for people walking the wrong way. I suggested he fix that. After all that, he told me not to worry about it and I didn’t it, until I received a letter from the Bursars office telling me that I owed $70 for the unpaid parking ticket. Mind you that I am suppose to graduate in May and this could hinder my May 17 plans. I walked to the Bursars office to speak about this mistaken ticket. Due to some computer error the ticket had not been taken off my record. All was fine in the “land of unpaid dues and fees”. Here is my suggestion. I remember a time before the yellow coat ticket nazis flooded the campus with their bogus accusations and speed dialed numbers to the local towing companies. I remember the worst that could happen if you got a ticket was that your records would be put on hold if a ticket was not paid. Now, as a student who always buys the current year parking pass, I have to worry that one-day I will walk out to my car to find it towed and gone because of some glitch in the ticketing office. Why not go back to that time. Maybe educate the Cadet people that the severity of forgetting to put your parking pass up is not dimmable of sending us to Hell. The cadets need to be educated in with is possible citation for parking and what is just stupid. Here’s to never having to deal with the NKU student cadets ever again. – Amanda Ertel