Students hope to avoid being “booted” for parking violations

OWU students know not to mess with parking enforcement. Students quickly find that public safety will hand out tickets for many different reasons and hundreds of dollars in fines can quickly accumulate.

On top of the anxieties surrounding parking fines and public safety, OWU students fear one thing above all: getting booted.

The “boot” is a yellow circle that locks onto the wheel of the car and immobilizes it. Getting booted can have horrible consequences. The headache of getting the boot removed and paying the associated fees can ruin someone’s entire day.

“They placed a boot on my car because I had unpaid tickets,” says Aidan Ross, Ohio Wesleyan sophomore. “I went to the public safety office all [angry] and explained to them that I would pay them through my student account. They removed the boot, and I didn’t have to pay.”

Although Ross escaped the situation without having to pay the $75 removal fees, that does not mean getting booted did not have lasting consequences.

“They left a little note on my car, like a warning not to drive it with the boot on it. That note was impossible to get off of my window. I tried to peel it off and it just made it worse.”

With all of this pandemonium and hysteria surrounding getting booted, OWU students likely want to know why people get booted and how to prevent it.

According to the public safety website, “Any vehicle receiving more than four tickets in an academic year may be ticketed and booted on all subsequent violations. Vehicles may be booted for up to 72 hours, during which time the locking mechanism may be removed by paying a $75 fine. After a vehicle has been booted three times, the student may lose all on-campus parking privileges, and the student’s vehicle may be towed from any campus property.”

All hope is not lost, however. Getting booted is preventable for OWU students. Students must make sure that they are parking in clearly outlined parking spots, and not parking on the grass or by dumpsters. Students should also be sure to park in a zone that corresponds to their parking pass type. If you are careful, you will run a low risk of getting the boot.