Campus is on orange alert.
Brightly colored orange stickers have sprung up everywhere attached to unregistered bicycles because they are in violation of MSU Board of Trustees Ordinance 33.
MSU Department of Police and Public Safety student employees apply the tags, which specify the bike must be registered or removed from the spot it is residing in or it will be impounded by a specified date.
This process occurs annually at the end of the spring semester on campus, and, according to MSU DPPS Deputy Chief Michael Rice, after a slight setback, the process has already begun this year.
"We've already started," Rice said. "And we would have started sooner but we have some hydraulic cutters, the ones that cut the 'U' locks, that were in for repair. So there's been some delay, but we're out there impounding."
Rice said the cleanup will sweep through living areas and Rice predicts the process won't be finished until mid-summer.
Students can avoid getting their bikes tagged and impounded by registering them through DPPS, East Lansing, Lansing or Meridian Townships. Free online registration is a new feature and now the exclusive way for students to register their bikes.
Studio art sophomore Stashia Taylor said she got her permit from DPPS as a freshman and doesn't understand why more students don't register.
"The people who complain about ? getting the permit, it's free and I don't know why they don't fill out the form and get the free permit," Taylor said.
Other students like Lindsey Stott don't want to be troubled with the process. The zoology junior said she was annoyed when told her bike would be impounded if she left it for the week break between the spring and summer semesters.
"It was really inconvenient to take it home for a week and move it back up here," Stott said.
Last year Rice said DPPS impounded 1,811 bikes. And this year, to avoid problems with community members who may be touring campus or visiting the Dairy Store, bikes are being impounded at night.
Once bikes are impounded, owners have 30 days to claim them, after which they are sold for $8 and up, depending on their condition, at the MSU Surplus Store.
Rice said the department doesn't particularly enjoy taking people's property, but it must carry out its job.
"It's just part of the regular cycle of duties we have," Rice said.
