By Jon Gambrell
Enquirer contributor

OXFORD - Miami University students received an early Christmas present Tuesday - a parking ticket amnesty program.

The program, which would forgive two parking tickets per year for students, faculty, staff and visitors starting Jan. 1, will come as a relief to many students. The Oxford campus has limited parking and steep parking fines - sometimes $75 per ticket.

"This is an effort to reach out to the community," said Richard Keppler, director of parking and transportation services at the university. "One of the things we want to dispel is the idea Miami's parking challenges are out of control."

The plan came as a surprise to Miami student government senator Megan Ruhe, who was planning legislation to implement an amnesty program.

"One of the reasons I joined the senate was to help with the parking ticket problem - being an off-campus student, it is kind of frustrating," said Ruhe, a 20-year-old junior exercise science major from Ottawa, Ohio. "It is easy for me to make mistakes and easy for other students. A $50 ticket is a lot for a college student."

Keppler admitted Miami parking tickets are higher than other college campuses and the surrounding community, partly as a deterrent. But after handing out more than 56,000 tickets to students last year alone, the shock value waned and parking remains tight for students and faculty alike.

"Our college campus is not built like a shopping mall," he said. "Our campus is designed on a human scale, it is designed for walking."

For more information, go to (http://www.units.muohio.edu/prk/).

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E-mail jgambrell@fuse.net