UWM Parking and Transit locks students out

Residents at Kenilworth Apartments came home to discover they had been locked out of their second floor parking Monday.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Parking and Transit operates the garage, charging students $100 per month to park there. When Kenilworth staff reported the problem late yesterday afternoon, the transit office assured the staff that only students who were delinquent in their parking payments had been locked out.

This was not the case, according to many students at the front desk yesterday evening. It seems many more students had been locked out. Because the parking office, located on the Union's ground floor, closes at 4:30, students were left to find street parking and fill the lower level lot, which is metered and prohibits parking between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Students awoke this morning to find their cars ticketed, despite the front desk's efforts to record students' names, phone numbers and license plates. The ticketing officer did not listen to Kenilworth staffs' explanations, staff said.

Students enter the garage by using a device adhered to their windshield. When the vehicle approaches the garage, a sensor recognizes the vehicle and grants the student access.

Parking and Transit officials were notified again this morning of the problem, claiming that only students delinquent in payment were locked out.