Katy Korstange, Staff Writer 

Beginning this school year, the university has implemented a new parking requirement mandating that all registered vehicles must be parked with their license plates facing the drive lane, adding to its existing permit and lot regulations. 

For vehicle owners who have front and back plates, this does not cause an issue at all. These drivers may park forwards or backwards as long as they are parked in a permitted spot. However, for vehicle owners who only have back plates, this is not the case. 

As an out-of-state student, I do not have a front license plate. This means that I am not able to back into parking spots on campus without getting a ticket. This is a fact I learned a few days ago when I got an email stating that I had been ticketed for backing into my parking spot even though I was in the correct lot. 

I initially assumed that this was part of the regulation because Xavier enrolls a lot of students from states that require front license plates, which would make those without them a minority. However, this reasoning does not hold up. 

As of 2020, Ohio, the state that most Xavier students come from, no longer requires front license plates. This means that a majority of students are directly affected by this policy, raising an important question: if most students do not have front license plates, why enforce a rule that depends on them? 

It’s definitely not an issue of safety. In fact, backing into parking spots or pulling through is much safer because it offers better visibility of traffic and pedestrians upon leaving the spot. A college campus has a lot of pedestrians, especially in the commuter lots, which means that this safety issue significantly impacts Xavier students. 

Furthermore, as a female, I have always been taught to back into my parking spot because if there was ever an event in which I needed to leave quickly and safely, I would be able to do so. Even though this is a small risk, it makes me feel safer especially on a campus that is near some sketchy areas like Xavier is. 

So, if it’s not an issue of safety, what is it? It cannot be laziness because if the ticket officer can walk behind my car to see that my license plate is valid, and that I am parked in the correct lot just to give me a ticket, why not just acknowledge that I am parked in the right lot and move on? That is much less work than writing up a ticket for every car whose license plate is not visible from the drive lane. 

Ultimately, this new parking policy does not effectively serve the students it is meant to regulate. Instead, it creates an unnecessary inconvenience for a large portion of the student body, many of whom are already following the rules and regulations correctly by parking in the correct lot. 

“We make the personal safety and security of all students, faculty, staff, and visitors a top priority,” the Xavier University safety website states. 

The requirement prioritizes ease of enforcement over fairness, safety and practicality. If Xavier University prioritizes safety like they explicitly state, this policy should be reconsidered. Until then, this rule is an example of a regulation that enforces compliance without truly supporting the community it affects.