Tom Walker, Junior Editor
Parking and parking tickets are as common a complaint at Sewanee as cafeteria food, room draw and mold. But Police Chief Jeremy Thomas said students don’t always understand how complex the issue is.
“The students, when they think about parking, they get upset at the police department if they get a ticket,” Thomas said. And, we don’t make those rules. We just enforce them, the University makes those rules. The students, when they think about parking, they get upset at the police department if they get a ticket. I hate that [students] always get upset with us, we’re just doing our job.”
Tickets have been a particularly heated issue this year, amid changes in student car permitting and new restrictions limiting where students can park. An opinion piece written last February, included one student’s comment: “The ticketing? I think it’s outrageous. $60 is way too much. They’re too harsh on the ticketing. It very much seems like… a money grab, which is not what this school needs.”
Thomas told The Sewanee Purple that the police department has no control over ticket prices and does not retain the revenue generated by tickets. “We don’t set prices, we don’t set the rules. I think a portion of [the money students pay for tickets] may come back to the department, but it’s just dispersed out for different things. It always comes back to the students. I’m not sure how all of that comes into play, but it doesn’t benefit the department at all,” he said. Asked how ticket prices were decided, Thomas said that ticket prices were fixed by the University.
Thomas added that ticket money “eventually comes back to students. That can be through activities for students, services, and things like that.”
Students are not only frustrated because of the price of tickets. Some students say that the parking policy does not meet their needs—especially when they have disabilities. “My problem has been that, according to the parking policy, I am only allowed to park in a handicap spot or a spot in my assigned lot,” said James Mennell (C ’28). This would not be a problem if the handicap spots were available but they are rarely available around my dorm.”
Mennell said he often has to choose between possibly worsening his injury by taking a long walk from his assigned lot or violating the parking policy.
Such disputes over tickets are decided by the appeals process. In October 2023, another student contended in a Purple interview that “the appeal process is biased and almost humorous.” She said she got four tickets in one week and only two were withdrawn on appeal.
For at least the past six years, Thomas said, ticket appeals are decided by a board of three students who are not chosen by the police department. When officers write tickets, they take pictures of each violating vehicle. If the ticket recipient appeals, the appeals board considers the officers’ photos and the explanation offered by the vehicle’s owner. “If you’re given a violation, but the picture shows that you’re parked where you’re supposed to be, then they’ll throw it out. They’re very fair about it,” Thomas said. “I don’t want anybody to think that the officers are controlling that process. It’s completely unbiased. It’s your peers that are making that decision and that’s a good thing.”
New parking policies were imposed this academic year to “promote walking and biking,” domain manager Nate Wilson told the Purple last fall. By all appearances, that has made the police department the public face of policies it didn’t create.
Thomas contends that the resulting complaints from students aren’t necessarily being caused by a parking shortage. “You’ll never drive all the way around campus and find that every parking lot is full,” he said.
But the number of registered vehicles outpacing the number of parking spots on campus may make it harder to find parking spots on central campus. This problem particularly affects the janitorial staff who need to park close to the dormitories to do their jobs. “All of our janitorial staff drive their own personal vehicles with their cleaning supplies in them. They might drive from Ayres to the other side of campus to clean a building. Those service spots are for them and electricians, plumbers, and people who are coming to fix things throughout the day,” Thomas said. “The people who are trying to keep your building in great shape need to be able to park close so that they can get their tools or whatever they need.”
Ultimately, Thomas worries that students see the department as ‘bad guys.’ “I don’t want any of them to think we’re out to get them. I want them to know that whether they’re walking around at night or they’re asleep in the bed that there are at least two officers here 24/7 to keep them safe. I think we do a pretty good job of that. If we know you need something we try our best to help however we can,” Thomas said. If you just need someone to vent to, we’ve got people here who can do that. “I’ve been that person for a lot of students who aren’t here anymore, and a lot of those students call me on a regular basis to see how I’m doing.
“I don’t want any of the students to think that anytime they have an interaction with one of the police officers that it should be negative. Sometimes we have an issue that needs to be addressed and we can’t avoid it. It is what it is, but we’ll always be courteous and respectful,” Thomas said. “I just ask that [students] do the same for the officers.”