I was recently made aware that parking in one of the parking decks on campus between 2 and 6 a.m. is an offense. This immediately seems to be a rather counterintuitive policy for a department that bills itself as being in charge of “public safety.”

The parking structures are some of the few parking areas that are both well lit and on campus, making them perhaps the safest place to park in the middle of the night. Making them off-limits during the most dangerous time of the day did not seem to be in the interest of public safety at all. Since there is apparently enough manpower to hand out tickets, the cost of patrolling the structures did not seem to be an issue. The reasoning behind such a policy seemed rather dubious.

By not posting notice of the “no parking” zone, there is a much greater chance that unsuspecting motorists will break the rule, receive a ticket and pour more money into police coffers.

Not only are such actions deceptive, but downright immoral. For a department that is concerned with its image on campus, actions such as these display the lack or regard MSU police actually have for the student population.

David Levine
international relations senior