Rain, snow or shine, parking services' Leah Conley is writing tickets. She and her fellow parking services meter readers have a bad reputation. But they claim it is the people who receive the tickets that are in the wrong.
Conley says she doesn't have anything against drivers on campus - she is just doing her job.
Conley has worked in various offices at Ball State for 13 years. At parking services her duties have included designing the current parking passes, as well as distributing parking tickets.
In spite of the vitriol, she says she loves her job. On nice days she gets to be outside. Her co-workers are friendly. But mostly she loves Ball State.
She grew up around Muncie and attended Ball State. As a wife and mother of two, she said having a job that is flexible is very important to her. Having to fine Ball State students, faculty or visitors for improper parking, is just part of her job description.
On an average day Conley, as well as the rest of the ticketing staff, cover one of four zones on campus. They don't patrol the metered lots exclusively, waiting for the meters to run out while students are still in class. For Conley, students yelling rude remarks is not uncommon. Conley said that it is their fault that they got the ticket. But that doesn't mean she likes to distribute the tickets. It does have to be done by someone.
She said that the major problem of parking services is that everyone wants a parking space right next to his or her building, so commuter lots, the stadium or even the teachers' assigned lots don't always suffice for parking. This leads to the current situation where someone is always complaining about the amount of spots in one place or another. Conley's suggestion of how to fix any of these problems would be to have a free-for-all for one week. Not that this could actually happen, but she thinks that if cars flood into restricted areas, or if cars are at metered spots for the entire day, people might respect what she and the other parking ticketers do.
Two women discovered a parking ticket on their car. Although they had a commuter permit they had chosen to park in a metered lot. Conley heard them curse as they got into the car. She just laughed and smiled. In most cases she just tries to keep her mouth shut.
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