NIU visitors might no longer be allowed to accumulate exempt parking fines if the Campus Parking Committee takes action on a proposal to limit the number of parking fines visitors can have cleared.

Campus Parking Manager Lynn Fraser said campus visitors who do not have an NIU permit or who display the wrong permit for the lot can have their tickets cleared.

Fraser said “a good number” of visitors have habitually parked illegally and have had their tickets cleared. She declined to say how many visitors are parking illegally but did say those who do accumulate fines of $100 to $400. Under NIU policy, the fines cannot be collected, she said.

NIU parking tickets state, “VISITORS: If this ticket is for violation #1 (No NIU registration) or #2 (Permit not valid for lot) it will be cleared if no one in your immediate family is presently employed by or enrolled at Northern Illinois University.”

“I’d like to see that phrasing changed,” Fraser said.

One NIU alumnus parked habitually during the fall 1987 semester and accumulated $502 in fines, Fraser said. However, when the student returned to NIU this semester, she was required to pay only $2 for a parking meter violation, she said.

The $500 in fines for parking without an NIU registration was cleared because the student was a visitor and not enrolled during the fall semester, she said, adding, “I would consider that an abuse (of visitor parking exemptions).”

Fraser said she will recommend a limit of five visitor tickets that can be exempted per semester at the committee’s March 3 meeting. If approved, NIU could tow visitors’ cars if they have accumulated more than five exempt violations, she said.

Committee member Ken Bowden said he would support Fraser’s recommendation. “You (Fraser) draw up the motion, and I’ll make a motion (to pass the recommendation),” he said.

Visitor exemption abuses have cost NIU, Fraser said. The student who was cleared of $500 was sent monthly bills during the fall semester, she said.

“That particular individual probably cost the university $50 to $60 in materials and time,” Fraser said.

In other business, William Parker, interim associate vice president for business and operations, said the proposal to expand lot “S” south of Gabel Hall to include 200 more cars has been sent to the University Campus Environmental Committee.

Parker said the committee will study the environmental impact of expanding the lot and make a recommendation to James Harder, vice-president for business and operations.

The parking committee unanimously recommended the expansion of lot “S.”

Parker said it would be premature to say whether the environment committee would recommend the expansion, or whether the recommendations would be approved.

A memo from Robert Bornhuetter, parking committee chairman, to Harder states, “This lot (S) continually escapes development, and I suspect that this is due to the fears of some individuals that a visually attractive area of grass is to be completely paved with asphalt.”

However, the memo cites diagrams which “clearly provide for aesthetic consideration and illustrates that only a portion of the grassy area is to be converted.”