One of these days, students say with increasing regularity, parking ticket bills are going to rival tuition.

Tickets and expensive permits come with the territory. So do bus rides to the stadium or long walks in the cold.

Many dorm residents, especially first- or second-year students, don’t even have cars in Ames. They say the lack of convenient parking facilities is the main reason.

Kristine Pace, a freshman in psychology, actually does have a car at home, but it sits in her parents’ driveway. She hasn’t brought it to Ames “because I didn’t wanna park it at the stadium,” she said.

From Pace’s home in new RCA, the stadium — one of the farthest but most spacious lots in the Iowa State system — doesn’t seem as far as it does for Danielle Beauchamp, an undecided freshman who lives in Friley. She doesn’t have a car because the prospect of hoofing it out to Cyclone Stadium or the Towers parking lot isn’t exactly appealing.

Anne Tigges, an office worker in the Department of Public Safety’s parking division, said there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight. There are no plans that she knows of to build new lots near the dorms.

Several ISU students who don’t have their own cars in Ames say if the parking situation improved overnight, they would love to keep their vehicles in Ames. Pace said she would bring her car up “when I get more status” and can park in the RCA lots.

Tigges said Pace might have to wait a while. There are simply not enough slots to meet demand. “It’s just that we don’t have enough space for them to park,” she said. “Seniors get the first shot. And it depends on the lot and how much space there is, but there are some juniors who don’t get permits and have to park at the stadium.”

Not having cars creates problems for some. They end up having to rely on friends or Cy-Ride to get around off-campus, especially when blustery winter blizzards prevent them from walking. Even her friends have to park at the stadium, Pace said, “and the buses don’t always run when you want them to.”

Those who do have personal transportation gripe even more about parking on campus. Philip Oster, a senior in chemical engineering, thinks there’s “definitely” a parking problem at ISU, even though he has only gotten a couple of tickets on campus and a few from the city. “I kinda know better,” he said.

But for Oster and others who hate nasty Iowa winters, the cold sometimes causes logic and experience to fly right out the window. He admits to driving to campus more in the winter time. “I’d rather take the risk and pay a couple of bucks on a really cold day,” he said.

John Pajich, a junior in chemical engineering, has his own car, but said he “never” parks on campus. He usually takes the bus to class, even though he would prefer taking his own car.

“I’d rather drive, but it doesn’t look like there’s much out there,” Pajich said.

Others are a little sneakier. Many students try to park on campus without the correct permits and end up with a load of tickets.

Kim Hansen, a junior in marketing, said she has gotten a lot of tickets, “but there are times when I’ve gotten away with it,” she said. Hansen estimates that in her few years at Iowa State, she’s paid about $80 in parking fines.

“Sometimes I know I deserve it, and other times it makes me mad.”

She said that often times, parking in illegal spots isn’t worth the effort. Usually, they’re not very close to her classes anyway. “I figure I can park a few blocks further or wait until the spot is free,” she said.

Some parking spots, though, require a permit “all hours, all days.” Oster thought it might be a good idea to open these spots up to students at 5:30 p.m., the same time many other spots that require permits become free.

Tigges said she doesn’t see this happening soon, partly because there are already parking spaces that are free in the evenings, and partly because “people pay $500 a year for these spots, and they should be able to park there when they want to, whether it’s at 1 [p.m.] or 1 [a.m.]”

Tigges also said that there are “several” people who have the parking equivalent of a two-page rap sheet, with 15 to 20 tickets listed per page. Some students think they can avoid paying parking fines. They’re mistaken.

“Eventually we’ll get you for them, one way or another,” Tigges said.

If a ticket isn’t paid by the end of the month, Tigges said, they pop up on a student’s university bill. A ticket given to a visitor will be billed to the person’s address, which the university finds out by the same means that the city’s parking division does: a license plate number.

If a student slacks on paying even longer, the university still has ways of getting the money. “If not from withholding registration, then from graduation,” she said.