Canned food for citations

UTRGV Parking and Transportation Services, as part of Kindness for Cans, will remove one outstanding citation and its late fees for every 10 donations of new, undented cans with a clearly printed label until Thursday.

Kindness for Cans is an initiative that helps UTRGV students in need of food supplements by working with the Student Food Pantry to increase goods, according to Pablo Aguilar, director of Parking Services.

As of last Tuesday, Parking and Transportation Services had received about 150 donations.

“We hope to collect at least 500 total donations before this initiative is done,” Aguilar said. “But, since this is something new, I can’t really tell yet.”

He said there is no limit as to the quantity of citations that can be removed from a student’s account, as long as they are current outstanding citations and fall between the qualifying citations list: displaying an expired decal, double or multiple parking, failure to display a current parking permit, improper zone parking, parking permit not properly affixed to a windshield, unpaid ticket at Luke pay stations in Lot B1 and E4.

“The majority of the citations, the fee is $30 and, you know, some of them might incur late fees if students or employees don’t pay them on time,” Aguilar said. “Bringing in the canned food items … the citation and the fees will be dismissed.”

The citation forgiveness applies to university students, faculty, staff and visitors. 

“They will be able to donate and contribute to someone else’s citations or to their own citations,” Aguilar said. “We’ll take that into consideration, definitely with the appropriate donation, or if you just want to donate and you don’t have anybody in mind … we’ll just, you know, do a randomizer that will select outstanding citations.”

Jaime Richeson, program manager for Students Rights and Responsibilities, said Parking and Transportation Services pitched the idea to his office in March.

“I told them that we used to do something similar during Thanksgiving … back in the day when we were independent institutions and we would do Food for Fines,” Richeson said. 

He said the citation forgiveness is a positive thing because students do not always have the money to pay for fines. 

Fabriano Mariscal, a kinesiology graduate student, said he will be donating to remove a citation he has pending. 

“Well, even if I didn’t, it would be a good thing if I did [donate], just to support the community,” Mariscal said. “Not everybody has the money for even just food, you know, so it’s good to just give back.” 

Appeals are made online at UTRGV’s Parking Portal within 10 calendar days after the citation was issued, according to the UTRGV website.

For more information on Kindness for Cans and the approved canned food items visit, Appeals | UTRGV.