Display protests parking tickets

A car papered with copies of Boise State parking tickets, materialized early Thursday morning in the Language Arts parking lot to protest BSU’s parking policies.

Evangeline “Van” Beechler conceived the idea for the project for Tara McElhose-Eiguren’s Foundations of Design class.

Beechler presented the idea to her class, who agreed to collaborate on the project for the class final project.

The piece was intended to be anonymous; however by 9 a.m. the University determined who the responsible parties were and informed McElhose-Eiguren that the students must remove the car by Thursday.

The University issued a permit for the car, allowing the project to stay in place for one week.

Beechler said she was irritated that BSU decided to sanction the event, which was intended as a work of protest.

“If we wanted permission, we would have asked for it,” Beechler said.

Casey Miles, who helped with the project, said it was meant as a form of activism.

“Our intent was for it to be a radical activist project,” Miles said. “We need more protesting in Idaho in general. This issue is small, but we need to start somewhere.”

Trevor Irish, ASBSU personnel director, supported the project, saying that BSU officials need to recognize the burden parking fines create for students.

“I think it is a good way to show the administration that ‘Hey, parking is a problem,’” Irish said. “They are taking advantage of students.”

According to the BSU operating budget, Boise State collected $1.7 million in parking fines for Fiscal Year 2001.

Beechler said the financial burden imposed by fines takes its toll on students.

“I personally have paid more for parking fines than I did for books this year,” Beechler said.

Andy Benson

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