At its final meeting of the year, members of the Inter-Residence Hall Association saw a transition of power to the organization’s new leaders, President Eric Peters and Vice President Justin Rasmussen.

A bill, calling for illegally parked cars on campus to be towed after a first offense, was rewritten. It will allow a committee, with members appointed by IRHA, and the Department of Public Safety to discuss possible solutions to what IRHA said is a parking problem. The new bill states the goal of the committee is to ensure students will receive appropriate on-campus parking.

Capt. Doug Houghton, head of the parking division for the Department of Public Safety, answered questions concerning parking and towing from members of IRHA.

Ticketing vehicles is difficult because the parking problem is cyclical, Houghton said. Officers patrol lots where there are problems, ticket the vehicles and the problem will stop, he said. The department then moves to other problem lots and follow the same process, Houghton said.

Students will see a greater response in the fall to events that have previously caused problems with student parking, such as football games, Houghton said.

Annually, Houghton said $1 million is collected from parking fines on campus. There are between 100,000 and 110,000 tickets written every year, which “is not an unusual number,” Houghton said.

Also at the meeting, a bill asking the Department of Residence to split fines issued when custodians have to clean up out-of-the-ordinary messes among residence hall students at the end of each semester was defeated.

Most students would rather have money taken out of their house account, rather than their pocket, said Andy Tugan, Linden Hall representative.

However, a bill asking for a standard list of custodial fines included in the terms and conditions was passed unanimously. There have been problems with fines going through proper channels, said Clinton Middaugh, Birch-Welch-Roberts representative.

Hall directors are supposed to be the point fines are funneled through, said Jon Shertzer, IRHA adviser. The residence department is working to solve a problem with inconsistency, Shertzer said.

There is a necessity to define fines in the residence departments’ Terms and Conditions, Tugan said.

“If the assessments are stated [in the Terms and Conditions, it] will alleviate the pressures on custodians [to assess fines],” said Drew Larson, Union Drive Association treasurer.

IRHA has also requested Iowa State continue the use of Registration Manager in conjunction with Mark and Jeff Lanning, the owners and creators of the program, by allowing them access to catalog files.

Another option recommended by IRHA is to develop a similar program, written by the university, after the youngest of the two brothers graduates in May.