Written by Kenzie Kesselring, Opinions Editor

Parking is a pain. It’s a pain for students. It’s a pain for teachers. It’s a pain for everyone.

The cost of a parking ticket $15 and the cost of an extended parking ticket $20. The number of parking tickets for VSU students in one year is over 20,000.

According to Jill Ferrell, VSU’s Director of Parking and Transportation, for the 2013 to 2014 school year, about 29 thousand tickets were given out. In the 2014 to 2015 school year, a little over 26 thousand tickets were distributed.

For the current academic year, the total number of tickets is over 24,000. As of publication date, the number of tickets for the 2015-2016 academic year is 24,002.

Ferrell attributes the decline in tickets between the academic years to the decline in enrollment, staff reduction and increase in students following parking guidelines.

According to the data provided, the most tickets come from main campus and the least ticketed spot is the Nevins lot. However, many of the tickets come from the timed parking spots on campus.

On main campus alone, there are about 100 timed parking spots. In total, for both main campus and north campus there are 143 timed spots.

According to Ferrell, the prominent reason for parking tickets falls under the no permit violation. According to the VSU website all motor vehicles must properly display a current parking permit to park on campus at all times, Monday through Friday and open parking on campus begins after 5:30 pm with a valid parking permit.

Ferrell says there are no new parking regulations that students should be aware of and that students should always purchase and display a valid parking permit. Students should also always park in the correct designated parking areas.

Although the parking regulations on campus stay consistent from semester to semester, some students who park on campus do not agree with parking regulations.

Many students feel that there isn’t enough parking and that overnight parking should be expanded forward into Oak parking lot.

“Our parking is trash,” said Cierra Lowe, freshman exercise physiology major. “If we had a better parking situation, ticketing wouldn’t be as bad.”

However, not all students dislike the parking situation at VSU.

“Ticketing makes people move their cars, so that’s not bad,” said Leslie Crosby, freshman biology major.

Even though parking is a pain, it is necessary, and it does not look like VSU will be making changes to their parking system any time soon.