From parking fines to overdue books, to locker penalties, students can be dinged for a long list of infractions.

Getting them to cough up the funds, however, is a little harder.

Last year, 53 per cent of college parking fees were not paid, which left over $10,000 in outstanding fines. As well, students can accumulate overdue fees, said Brenda Mahoney, librarian at the Learning Resource Centre. The LRC sends out e-mail messages to remind students with outstanding books and fines.

“Those who have high fines will often pay them right away,” said Mahoney. “Those with low fines, like 30 cents, will argue over them.”

If a student has unpaid fines, Mahoney wrote in an e-mail, they are sent a reminder e-mail and have two weeks to pay them. After that, their accounts are encumbered.

An encumbered account is a result of unpaid fines, or unreturned equipment, that prohibits a student from requesting transcripts, registering for courses and receiving their diploma.

“[It] restricts the person’s ability to access administrative services,” said Eric McRae, manager of Parking and Transportation Services. “You still graduate, you just don’t receive your diploma.”

Some students will leave the college, and not pay their parking fines, said McRae. While at the LRC, Mahoney has had former students return to pay their fines in order to release their accounts and get transcripts. The library has updated its computer systems over the past few years, and sometimes records of fines are lost in the process.

On the other hand, parking services has to deal with much larger sums outstanding fines. McRae is currently dealing with an individual case in which a person has accumulated over $1,200 in unpaid fines in the past year.

“We can make payment arrangements,” said McRae. “I like to be able to work on a client to client basis because not everyone has $200 or $300 sitting in their bank accounts.”

There is a collections process that the college has in place for collecting fees, said McRae. “Encumbered accounts can go on for years,” said McRae, “but after a long process of notices, the college can send a collections person if needed. If the account is for a substantial enough amount, they can do that.”