For years my Masters diploma has been held hostage by UVic. The crime? An unpaid parking ticket.
I studied tirelessly, balancing work and sometimes social life. A familiar story for Canadian students- young people with higher school/living/housing costs relative to income, and higher experience requirements in entry work than any generation before.
We begin to feel like universities treat us as pay cheques, not individuals gaining knowledge and making our own small changes in the world.
I know it all sounds dramatic. Why not just pay the fines and receive my diploma? I’ve decided it’s time to make a small change. I’ve begun reaching out to anyone who will listen, and questioning this policy.
Why is UVic cruelly leveraging these fines on an unrelated matter? For example, does your garbage collection stop after unpaid municipal parking tickets? No, they’re separate issues, and it’s unethical.
In closing, I won’t be paying my ticket anytime soon hoping this ridiculous policy will be detracted- knowing my luck my fines will be grandfathered in.
I reflect on my UVic education with a bitter taste in my mouth, I feel disappointed and used by their petty parking system.
