The increase in enrollment this year is making finding a parking spot more difficult, and as a result, some students are parking in illegal parking spots.

A few parking areas, including unoccupied handicapped spots and the area north of Harter Union, have caused some confusion for students.

Freshman Cara Hollingsworth said she received a parking ticket because she was told she could park in the handicapped spot behind Irwin Hall because there is not anyone handicapped living in the residence hall this year.

However, Bruce Elliott, policeman for the Baldwin City Police, said the police will ticket cars not marked as handicap that are parked in handicapped spots for a $75 fine.

“If a parking spot is marked handicapped, then you must have a handicapped sign on your car to be able to park there,” Elliott said. “No matter what, it is a violation to park there if your car is not properly tagged, even if it is in a vacant building parking lot.”

Ed Pearson, security guard for campus security, said there would be no reason to mark a parking spot as handicapped and then tell students they can violate the marker.

The other parking area that has been causing problems was addressed by Gary Walbridge, director of the physical plant, in an e-mail sent out to students Oct. 30.

The e-mail asked students to not park their cars in front of the unloading dock on the north side of Harter Union.

“Cars that are being parked there are causing problems with the trash dumpsters being dumped and deliveries made to the student union,” Walbridge said in the e-mail.

The e-mail also said cars that are not moved from the unloading area may be towed at the owner’s expense.

The Baldwin City Police can issue tickets to cars parked on public streets, but cars on private Baker property must be dealt with by campus security.

Pearson said campus security does not have the authority to ticket cars that are in the way. He said the campus security would try to contact the owner of the vehicle and have that person move his or her car. If the car is not moved, though, and is causing traffic issues, security can call the police and have the car towed.

“Campus security does not want to cause any problems with the students and wants to have good relationships with students,” Pearson said. “We do not want to have to tow any cars.”

Elliott said students just need to be aware of the markings on sides of streets and that the markings are there to help the flow of traffic. He said it is not worth the risk to park somewhere illegally, and run the chance of coming back out to the car and finding it has been towed.

"Basically, if you think you should not park somewhere, chances are you should not because there is a reason why it is marked," Elliott said.<br/>