It is one thing to require commuter students to purchase parking passes for no apparent reason, it is quite another to make it ridiculously inconvenient.
Luckily, I managed to slip in below the radar at both the Allendale and Pew campuses, as I had forgotten to purchase one of these blasted parking permits that the new draconian regime has instituted. Maybe they were just being lenient because it was the first day. Though, DPS does not have a history of leniency so I doubt that is the case, it is probably more a matter of incompetence.
While I was on the Allendale campus, I was just going to drop by DPS to pick up a permit, no big deal I thought. As I walked up to the front door I saw signs plastered all over the place that said:
PARKING PERMITS MUST BE ORDERED ONLINE
[the url to the relevant site]
I was quite annoyed, but did not have the time to bitch annoy one out about it, since I had to pick up books before my class at Pew. So, I drove up to Pew and managed to talk one of the “toll both” lackeys into letting me park there for the day, because I had not received my permit yet.
This morning, I went to the url that I was instructed to go to in order to purchase a permit. Much to my dismay I was shot through a maze of links that took me through several parts of the GVSU website without indicated what exactly I was supposed to do at the next. For example, sending someone to the SIS login page without informing them that, that is where they are going and what to do once you get there.
To cap off my irritation, once I finally dug my way through to the order form, and have agreed to the charges, they give me a receipt without payment. Apparently, rather than just taking payment for the permit, they charge it to your so called “student account” whatever that is. 
So, now I have to try to figure out what my student account is, and how the hell I am supposed to pay it. Bah.
Oh yeah, I should probably mention that this post in no way has anything to do with Deyshia Steketee, I just needed a DPS photo for the post. 
In SIS you can look up your student account….you can go to student services if your financial aid doesn’t cover it.
I agree getting a parking permit is total BS. It’s a ripoff and a waste in time and money.
i had it made when i wen to GVSU. parking was a lot cheaper back then. i think it was 40 bucks per semester. and at that time, commuters didn’t have to pay.
It was nice of the lackey to let you park since he/she could get fired over it. They did you a favour.
I know because I became one of those lackeys in the past couple weeks, not at your university. And I feel for YOU! The students have not arrived yet and there is already a lack. At our university the passes can be $600 and more, and that is on the periphery.
You deserve to be exceedingly, annoyed doesn’t seem to cut it. But don’t take it out on the lackey.
I do not think the lackey would have lost their job over it, because their primary responibility is making sure people do not enter full lots. Monitoring who gets into the lot is just part of it, because all the lots are still patroled and tickets are issued to those without permits. So in a way I imagine this behavior is somewhat encouraged, because I believe tickets are around $40 per violation these days.
Think as you like. I Know it has happened.
I AM NOT here to argue FOR any establishment making money off parking/cars – personally I sold my car for the vacuous glutton that it was.
I AM here to argue for a little compassion for another human being. Even before I was a lackey, I never called people lackeys nor thought of them as such. That attitude sux! And it will not get you far for long … and usually at the LEAST convenient moment lol.
It always amazed me that throughout my entire education (university included by the way) and the multiple leadership/management courses they never tought the students that without the lackeys you are screwed … feel free to test it out. No one can screw you like “an innocent mistake” by one of your lackeys or the “strict adherence to policy/procedure” plead by soooo many other lackeys (my personal favorite).
For you: it’s finals, your LAST exam, the one you at least an 80 to pass, you are late, you are tired from cramming last night, you arrive at the parking lot WITH NO MONEY, and what do you know it’s the lackey who found out you’d been laughin’ behind his back when he did you a favor — Guess what is going to happen?
And believe it not … that IS the way life goes baby lolol
– Last post on this topic … Good Luck in your lives.
A good lackey won’t mind being called a lackey.
I’m not sure what management/”leadership” courses you have taken, but I think the issues of lackeys are taken care of in the “division of labor” sections. The simple economics of the situations dictate if the position was not needed it would not exist.
Our parking situation is based on annual permits you have to purchase, parking in the lots does not cost anything, you just cannot do it without a permit.
Also, I would probably quit school if I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get an 80% on an exam.
I also do not study the night before, because that is generally unproductive. You need to study days before the exam, and relax the night before.
Cheers!