During the spring move-out week at Bowling Green State University, frustration often peaks — not just over final exams, but over parking tickets. Many Falcon families have taken to social media to vent about getting cited while hauling their belongings out of dorms, but according to university citation data, the real ticket surge isn’t happening during move-out at all.
BG Falcon Media heard the complaints and consequently filed a public records request with the university for parking data from 2020 through 2025 to determine if move-out week was a hot spot for citations.
This stems from April 29 comments made in a Facebook group called BGSU – Parents and Families about issuing parking citations during move-out week and whether the university’s parking services offer leniency during move-in and move-out periods.
“My husband was sitting in the car while we ran into the dorms for a few minutes to load up, and we still got a ticket,” one user said. “It charged zero dollars, but he literally had his arm out the window waiting.”
Another user commented, “They are driving around and literally circling everyone who is loading cars up. The university needs to waive parking issues during move-out times.”
Likewise, other users expressed their frustration frankly.
“The parking police are out of control at this university,” said one user.
BG Falcon Media looked at the citation data for the spring 2025 semester, specifically the month of April. According to the 2024-2025 academic calendar and the university’s website, final exam week began April 28, and the dorm move-out procedure is that a student must be moved out 24 hours after a student’s last exam.
According to university parking data, BGSU Parking Services issued 1,551 citations during the week of April 7, the week of April 14 had 1,433 citations, the week of April 21 saw 1,395 citations, while the move-out week of April 28 saw the lowest number of citations for the month, 1,265. When compared to the entire spring 2025 semester, April is the least ticketed month with 5,644 citations, while January, February and March all reached over 7,000 citations per month.
A review of semester-by-semester citation data from 2021 through 2025 shows no unusual spike in tickets during the move-out period in late April, in particular. However, citations overall have steadily and dramatically increased, especially in 2025.
In the spring 2025 semester alone, the same semester the university switched from giving physical parking tickets to electronic tickets only, BGSU Parking Services issued a whopping 27,525 citations — double the number of citations than spring 2024. In comparison, one year prior, in the spring 2024 semester, only 12,238 citations were issued. Further, the spring 2023 semester saw 6,834 citations.
Spring citation numbers aren’t the only semesters increasing. The fall 2022 semester saw more than 11,000 citations, followed by nearly 14,000 citations in fall 2023 and increasing to more than 17,000 citations in fall 2024.
Having ballooned to more than 27,000 citations, the spring 2025 semester alone shows an unusual number of citations issued over the past four academic years.
However, the number of citations issued is not the only piece of data that has increased. The amount of money in issued citations has, too.
To start, the spring 2023 semester had $31,981 in issued citations, followed by more than double that amount in spring 2024 with $71,168. However, the spring 2025 semester saw $381,090 in issued citations, or quintuple (five times) the amount of money in spring 2024 and elevenfold (11 times) the amount of spring 2023.
What began as a data investigation into a stressful move-out week uncovered something larger: a dramatic, university-wide surge in parking citations and fines — with few answers from those in charge.
BG Falcon Media reached out multiple times to set up an interview with BGSU Parking Services, including one week (eight days) before, three days before, and one day before our publication deadline, but our requests were unanswered. As a result, BG Falcon Media reached out to the Office of Marketing and Brand Strategy for answers.
Media Relations Manager Michael Bratton said the time period of the data BG Falcon Media investigated includes a global pandemic.
“During that time, there were fewer students, staff and overall visitors on campus. In the years coming out of the pandemic, there was an increase in people returning to campus for classes and events, and parking citations followed the trend,” said Bratton.
Bratton also said BGSU Parking Services implemented new technology and a new parking monitoring software system, utilizing e-ticket citations, virtual permits and license plate scanners. BGSU implemented new parking software on Jan. 2, 2025, according to a university-wide email.
The new software allows the university to issue tickets via email only. Previously, a Parking Services employee had to physically place a ticket on a vehicle’s windshield, but now, Parking Services sends the citations electronically.
