Parking Ticket

IUSB Parking Ticket

John Schirripa

When I think of Indiana University South Bend, a few things come to mind right off the bat. The first thing that I think of is the student life. Although not a very large school, the amount of interaction between students, especially in the student activity center, is astounding. Right behind the student life, the second major thing that comes to mind when I think of IUSB is parking. When it comes to parking, I think about the first week of school and how it is a frenzy and how finding a place to park is near impossible. This is why the artifact that I chose to display was an Indiana University South Bend parking ticket.

To me the idea of the parking ticket represents more than just its obvious meaning. In my opinion it does a few things to help understand some of the history behind IUSB. For one it helps to denote that IUSB is a commuter campus, meaning that the majority of its students do not live in campus housing and in turn live in their own homes. Another aspect of IUSB that the parking ticket helps to describe is the constant struggle to find a parking space. Since this is a commuter campus, the pace at which the lots fill up is rather quick and getting a decent spot is near impossible, especially during the middle of a school day. Another aspect of the university’s history that this object displays, is that this campus has its own law enforcement. Since this ticket is issued by the IUSB Police Department, it shows how our university has progressed over the years and expanded enough to have its own police department. The final, which I believe to be the most important, is that the ticket shows the diversity amongst the people here at Indiana University South Bend. On the ticket it shows the specifications of the car, from this we can often gather a sense of economic status which can show the differing groups of people here on campus.

Although the ticket is not an overly-extravagant piece of art, the materials which it is constructed with also tells us about the history of Indiana University South Bend. The ticket is made of three-ply paper and an attached envelop for your payment. From the low-quality and relatively easy production of the product, it is safe to say that cost was a factor in making these tickets. This tells us that IUSB is not an extremely wealthy campus and is in turn the cheaper alternative to many flagship universities. However, this does tell us that the university is concerned with the rights of people who pay to go to this university and allows them first priority parking on campus.