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Show Editorial Hansen Decision Seems Unfortunate Although the Board of Regents are delegated authority by the Legislature to establish and operate parking lots at the University, Attorney General Phil Hansen moved a bit of the campus downtown with a recent decision. The new interpretation issued by Hansen Han-sen stipulates that University issued moving violations must be tried by a "court of competent jurisdiction." Prior to the decision students faced with paying for a moving violation received on campus could have the entire matter settled on campus. No points would be accumulated on the state driving record. Regent Chairman W. W. Clyde said yesterday that from now on all moving violations issued on campus cam-pus will be handled downtown. We find this extremely unfortunate. The advantages advant-ages to the prior system are apparent for the student. The fine structure used by city and county courts contain con-tain substantially more teeth than those at the University. Univers-ity. To this can be added the fact that driving points will now be added to an individuals driving record. The system will likely effect the amount and quality qual-ity of traffic enforcement handled by the campus traf-. fic division. If a ticketed person wishes a trial in the downtown judicial ,system, campus officers will be required re-quired to attend the proceedings. Some will no doubt say this is a boon in disguise to the illegally parked automobile. auto-mobile. We doubt it. If anything the traffic enforcement enforce-ment division will be beefed up to maintain present standards. The result can only mean increased costs for the University. Any new cost, no matter how small, can do nothing but pull tighter the financial purse strings of the University. Although only a small amount of moving violations are issued yearly, any lost revenue will be felt. - Also as a result of the decision, students in the future will be required to sign what is, in effect, a loyalty loyal-ty oath stating they will faithfully abide by all traffic rules and regulations. At the present the consent by students is "implied" by the fact of registration. Some chronic pessimists will surely say the whole system should be moved downtown. Their justification for this is the rate structure of $ 1 for downtown parking violations whereas the University charges $3. We agree that this is fine but students of this ilk should be reminded re-minded of the time limits set on violations issued in the city and county. When paid on the campus the student can, if he wishes, wait until the quarters end to settle up with the police. If this is attempted with the city court the student will, no doubt, spend a quarter resting at the expense of the city. With Hansen's decision it has been firmly established estab-lished that the University is not autonomous. This is unfortunate. The academic community should be subject sub-ject to no outside influences, least of all by judicial structures of the downtown community. An inroad has been made toward the University. We can only hope no one else decides to follow the Attorney At-torney General's lead. |
