Orange envelopes are starting to pop up on students’ cars across campus. These envelopes contain the new style of Fairfield University parking tickets, which are now being given out to students via four recently purchased Palm Pilots.
These recent additions to Public Safety are still unknown to most students on campus.
When students were asked how they felt about Public Safety using these new devices, responses were similar to those of Shona Durkin ’07: “They have palm pilots?”
The amount of money the school spent on the palm pilots and the AMT system that goes with it could not be disclosed.
Todd Pelazza, director of Public Safety, said that “the system is compatible with Banner information [on StagWeb], which enables us
to down and upload information.”
The information that exists in Banner information includes, according to the Fairfield University website, “all administrative data in student, alumni, Financial Aid, Finance and Human resources.”
Now, when Public Safety officers issue tickets, they are able to directly access a student’s account and send information to the Bursar’s office to ensure that the student is charged. They can also see exactly how many tickets a student has in the system.
While Pelazza is concerned with “the new devices’ software problems” that have occurred, which “AMT is working on correcting,” students have other concerns.
Daniel Edmonds ’07 recently had his car towed. According to Edmonds, he had paid all of his tickets.
“The info might be wrong or at least not up to date, and you may only be parked illegally for 10 minutes as you run into Donnaruma to talk to your professor,” said Edmonds.
Although these devices are much more efficient for Public Safety, students may be hurt by misunderstandings and lack of accurate information that the Palm Pilots have.
Edmonds suggested that “parking status should be up on StagWeb.”
If Public Safety has access to everyone’s accounts on their new palm pilot devices, Edmonds said, notices should be readily accessible on Stagweb through the same systems. This way, students can learn how much they still owe in parking tickets and see if they are close to the point of having their cars towed.
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