We emailed Mr. Jack Allen (a parking enforcement officer) and Mr. Frank Zebedis (chief of Winthrop Police) to see if they had something to say about this post. Only Chief Zebedis wrote back to us, but there is no way to tell if the two spoke and decided to only have one person send an e-mail or if Mr. Allen decided for whatever reason on his own not to respond.
The email we did receive went like this
Without knowing who the student is and who the officeer is, I would have to say this information is incorrect. In order to park on campus you must register your vehicle and obtain a parking permit. But you are not required to have a permit to drive on campus.
I believe this was a miscommunication issue.
Thank you,
“Sent via BlackBerry.”
I find it interesting that there is no mention of where this miscommunication took place. And after seeing how the rest of Winthrop University handles these miscommunications (which is almost always blaming it on the students), I find it encouraging that the blame was not placed on anyone.
For what it’s worth though, it seems that this situation is over. Or at least, if it happens again we have an email from Chief Zebedis that it’s not supposed to be happening.
Although I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the student who emailed us had gone to the police station and attempted to go through with buy a permit that would allow driving on campus but not parking…
as an undergrad i worked with Chief all the time. He is a really great guy, and he is trying to make Winthrop a better place, but he is fighting an uphill battle. He has a high turnover rate in officers, and keeping the entire force up-to-date with the ever changing polices is extremely difficult. The blackberry message is classic Chief. Trust me I have gone toe to toe with some of winthrop’s ‘finest’ over the stupidest things, and Chief really is trying his hardest