It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.

The ISU Department of Public Safety’s Parking Division does more for the campus than many typically think. Most know they write the tickets often found placed under windshield wipers, but they also operate the HelpVan service, work in the offices to take care of appeals and, more recently, they helped in moving the floats during the Veishea parade.

“There’s a perception that all the enforcement employees do is write tickets, but that’s not the case. We are a service industry,” said Capt. Doug Houghton, program manager for the DPS Parking Division. “Our first priority is to provide service and support to the campus, and then to write parking tickets when necessary.”

Houghton and his employees know, overall, vehicle-operating ISU students probably don’t have a very positive view of them.

“When the students deal with us one-on-one, there is generally not a problem; it’s almost always positive,” Houghton said. “As a general concept though, we probably don’t have the greatest reputation.”

Scott Seidenkranz, freshman in forestry, joined the Parking Division because he wants to work with the Department of Natural Resources after college and felt it would be good experience for him. His idea of what students think about him and his peers is gloomy.

“The students pretty much hate all of us,” Seidenkranz said. “We’re the assholes – whatever name it is, we’ve been called it.”

Seidenkranz works one six-hour shift a week, and said each time he has at least three to four drivers who drive by, roll down their windows and let him have it.

“The worst part of the job is all the hostility toward us,” Seidenkranz said. “Like when I’m writing tickets and a car full of people drive up beside me and cuss me out. I’m not that person though; I’m actually a good guy.”

Ryan Nasers, junior in pre-architecture and creator of an anti-Parking Division group on Facebook, said his feelings coincide with those predicted by Houghton and Seidenkranz.

“I just don’t really have a high opinion of them,” Nasers said. “I don’t really think they give people a chance, especially on the meters.”

According to the parking division’s records, in the 2005-2006 fiscal year the Parking Division received $1 million in parking fines and issued 92,072 tickets – which was actually 30,000 less than the previous year.

It’s no wonder why students may become overly hostile toward the parking division’s ticket enforcers, when the majority of them don’t have an extra $15 lying around the house.

However, only one-third of the Parking Division’s revenue comes from actual parking tickets. The other $2 million comes from parking meters, special events and fees for permits.

Houghton said the largest money-making months are October and April, for two reasons. The first reason is that they are the only two full months of school without any break.

The other reason is that they are both far enough into their semesters that the rules aren’t as flexible as they are at the beginning of semesters.

The revenue from the Parking Division, Seidenkranz said, goes right back into the campus for improving lots, painting roads, new street signs, snow removal and even to help fund the orange campus circulator route for Cy-Ride.

Another form of enforcement, the tow truck, is an even bigger hit to a student’s wallet and schedule.

Seidenkranz said the parking division will have Decker’s Amoco/BP Towing, with whom the Parking Division is contracted, come get a car if it has 10 to 15 unpaid parking tickets in a semester.

Also, complaints filed in regard to a car parking in a 24-hour reserved spot a couple times within a one-week period will prompt a tow.

“That’s the biggest no-no on campus; don’t park in the 24-hour reserve spots, because then you might get towed,” said Geoffry Rasmussen, Parking Division employee and junior in management information systems.

Rasmussen gets the opportunity to work with the more “helpful” side of the job, the HelpVan.

“I spend seven [hours] a week in the regular HelpVan, and another four in the late one, which runs until 3 a.m.,” Rasmussen said. “I do tire assists and gas assists, which are rare; I’ve only done one or two of those this semester. You have to be on the ISU campus though – a lot of people don’t know, but the frats and sororities are considered campus.”

If someone is close to campus and needs help, the ISU Parking Division cannot assist, despite their willingness to do so. The reason is simple, Houghton said – there would be conflict between the university and the car service companies around town who make money from those services.

Matthew Koester, junior in construction engineering, said he didn’t know the Parking Division offered these other services to the campus.

“I wasn’t aware they operated the HelpVan,” Koester said. “I appreciate them a little more now.”

Contrary to popular belief, the Parking Division employees have no quota to meet and don’t receive commissions or praise for the number of tickets they stick under windshields.

“A lot of people think that we’re just watching and waiting to write tickets, but that’s not the case at all,” Seidenkranz said. “I know one myth is that we get more money the more tickets we write; nope, not true. We don’t get any more money the more tickets we write. We don’t want to give tickets.”

In fact, if you show the employees kindness and respect, you will probably benefit from it.

“If someone comes up to me while I’m writing a ticket and explains themselves and shows me respect, I’ll probably take the ticket away,” Seidenkranz said.

Rasmussen agreed.

“If someone comes up when we’re writing them a ticket, we’ll usually just let it go. It depends on the situation though; it’s basically a judgment call by us,” Rasmussen said.

Although the student body as a whole doesn’t necessarily have a positive view of the Parking Division, it’s their job and somebody has to do it, Koester admits.

“Overall I’m sure they’re real nice guys. When you stop to think about it they’re all just trying to make some money just like everyone else. That puts a different spin on things,” Koester said.

When asked to give some advice to the vehicle operating students and employees on campus, Rasmussen and Seidenkranz both agreed on one thing: “Just read the signs.”