For the car-driving student, parking on campus tends to be the biggest pain. Finding spots and avoiding boot-toting parking rats are typical problems. But perhaps more common is the lack of correct change.

How many students have been forced to take a parking ticket for mere lack of a few quarters? Some businesses require students asking for change to make a purchase. The student with two dimes and a nickel is somehow inferior to the one with a full-blooded quarter. Nickels and dimes are still forms of currency.

This University needs parking meters that accept nickels, dimes and quarters. Anything short of that just adds to the idea that this University isn’t as advanced as it claims to be.

Replacing every meter is an option, albeit probably an expensive one. There are other options, however. Some places in Uptown such as a lot near Galactic Pizza has a centralized paybox that accepts credit cards. Centralized payboxes might provide a convenient solution to both drivers and city officials. Rather than collecting from individual meters, officials could collect from one. Additionally, the payboxes would be more versatile in accepting more forms of payment. There are negatives to centralized payboxes, however, such as walking convenience and higher degrees of payment loss if boxes malfunction.

The city of San Francisco has replaced its archaic parking meters. Why hasn’t Minneapolis?

Parking meters that accept dimes and nickels also should be adjusted to allow for those increments of time. Just popping into a store for a minute? Pop a dime in the meter. This solution helps develop a more congenial relationship between the city and its citizens.

Whatever the solution, the University must make moves to provide for the nickel-and-dime-carrying student. Finicky parking meters might seem like a small inconvenience, but in reality, such parking meters add to the animosity many students feel toward the University. This is a shame considering the solutions are easy to come by.