Many JCU students have received at least one parking ticket during the year from JCUPD. Unfortunately, parking violations are a fairly common occurrence on campus.

Fortunately for JCU students who have been ticketed, sophomore Robby Quinn has started a new campus initiative for students to donate food items in place of the monetary amount they owe.

“The idea is that if anybody has an outstanding parking ticket from the beginning of the semester to before Thanksgiving break, that they haven’t paid yet, of any value, they can bring in five items from the list that we published, and have one of their outstanding tickets forgiven,” explained Quinn.

On campus, Quinn is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity as well as a member of the Arrupe scholars program.

Quinn got the idea for the initiative from stumbling upon an article about another college implementing something similar, which sparked his interest to start the process of bringing it to JCU.

“I actually saw an article in some news publication about the University of Anchorage,  Alaska, starting a similar program. So I found a couple more sources about what they were doing and I emailed Sydnia De Franco, the director of the Arrupe program, and I said ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be kind of cool if we could do something like that here?’ and she said ‘Yeah that would be cool, you should run with that,’ and so I did.”

“The school in the article did a similar program, but they were collecting just peanut butter and jelly for their on campus food bank to combat food insecurity. We thought that would be a great idea as well, so we reached out to Campus Ministry, who runs the on campus food bank. They actually, fortunately, have enough sources for incoming food collection that they didn’t need any more donations. So then we identified another group of people that needed food items donated, and we decided to go with that.”

Quinn continued the process by contacting JCUPD to see if it was something they would be interested in partnering on.

“I reached out to the police chief at JCUPD, Brian Hurd, by email and kind of explained who I was, why I was interested in doing this as part of Arrupe, and I sent him two of the articles I found and just said, ‘This is something great, and something that would be cool to implement here at JCU.’”

Quinn explained the benefits of this new initiative, both in helping the community and in saving JCU students’ money. “We thought that this would be effective because if you add up any of the five items in any way, it almost always comes out cheaper than any of the ticket values. So, students are not only going to be saving money, but they also have this great incentive to go out and buy food for this Christmas dinner collection that we’re doing.”

Quinn hopes to see this initiative return as an annual part of the holiday season at JCU.

“This is hopefully going to be an annual program that happens every fall semester, so it would be a collection after Thanksgiving for about a two-week period.”

Quinn said that his background as an Arrupe scholar aided in his motivation to do something social justice oriented on campus, and helped him in other ways with starting the initiative.

“I think even just having the position in the Arrupe program, to be able to reach out to them from that position as an Arrupe scholar, helped me to develop those initial connections.”

Quinn said this program will be beneficial to the community, especially during the holiday season. “We’re collecting food for one of the staff members of Aramark, who throws an annual Christmas dinner for those who might not be able to afford it, and those who might not have any family. She feeds 200 people every year on Christmas day for a great Christmas dinner. So, that’s where all the food contributions will be going.”

“For John Carroll students overall, I think this is a great way to just get out and have an impact on your community, while also dealing with the obvious issue that you have a parking ticket. On a side note, I think it’s been really great to hear a lot of people talking about it on campus.”

For more information about the initiative, reach out to [email protected], or find one of the posters around campus. “JCUPD has the published list of foods posted right outside their office. We also posted something on ‘Inside JCU,’ as well as posters around campus.”

Accepted food items for the  temporary ticket exchange policy

Please choose at least five (5) items from the list below to donate, bring them to the Parking Office, and have your ticket forgiven!

• Gravy Mix (6 oz. +)

• Stuffing Mix (12 oz. +)

• Canned Corn (30 oz. +)

• Canned Green Beans (30 oz. +)

• Cranberry Sauce (24 oz. +)

• Dry Pasta (32 oz. +)

• Marinara Sauce (24 oz. +)

• To-Go Boxes (8 in., 12 count)

• Paper Plates (10 in., heavy duty, 50 count)

• Instant Potatoes (24 oz. +)