A student-initiated petition to change a new parking policy requiring vehicles to be parked with their back license plates facing out has almost reached its signature goal.
Matthew Strotman, a senior civil engineering major, created a petition on change.org calling for the new policy prohibiting students and faculty from backing into parking spaces to be abolished. Strotman said he started the petition after receiving a citation while parked on the Marietta campus.
According to the Department of Parking and Transportation, newly implemented technology allows for license plates to function as parking permits. Because the scanners are truck-mounted, cars without front license plates must be parked with the rear license plate facing the drive lane.
While the new regulation does not explicitly ban backing into parking spaces, students who want to continue backing into their spaces must now obtain a front-facing license plate.
In the petition, Strotman parallels the new parking regulation to the repealed regulations on how meal swipes could be used, stating that, “we should be able to decide which way we want to park in a parking space, much like we are now able to decide how to use our meal swipes.”
Furthermore, Strotman labels the new regulation in his petition as a major safety concern due to the risks of backing out of a parking space. Since backing into a parking space positions the car facing traffic, it mitigates the potential for blind spots when leaving the parking space, according to Strotman.
The petition will be delivered to the Department of Parking and Transportation and KSU President Sam Olens if it reaches 2,500 votes. As of Monday, it had just over 2,000.
“I believe KSU’s policy to dictate how students park is the result of oversight and lacks any meaningful input or inclusivity from the student body,” said William Dunn, one of the signers of the petition. “Given KSU’s geographic location in the State of Georgia and lack of supporting evidence to support their policy decision, I fail to see how this policy serves for the betterment of the students and employees of KSU.”