Get to know the woman behind the campus badge

A parking ticket can be the epitome of a bad day for some students at UNCP, and even at best it’s an inconvenience. There are students on campus everyday who walk out to their cars to find pink slips of paper hanging from their windshield wipers.             Some wonder where  and who these tickets come from.

The answer lies in a petite 62-year-old woman named Betty Strickland.                
           
Strickland came to UNCP in 1993 and has been working with campus police for 14 years to help monitor parking and work events around campus.

Upon meeting her, she is the opposite of what some might picture. She is a softspoken grandmother of six who enjoys laughing and telling stories. Upon meeting her, you may find it hard to be angry about tickets found on your vehicle.            
             
Strickland has been roaming UNCP’s parking lots for many years and says she misses the days when there were only six or seven buildings on campus and a lot fewer cars. 

Still, Strickland is proud of the university and what it has grown to be, even if it makes her job a little harder.            
           
Although she has gone as far as putting over a 100 tickets out in a single day, she doesn’t enjoy doing it.

“I would love to see students park like they should,” she said.            
           
It would make her job a lot easier, and it would also save her from being the bad guy everyday, which isn’t a title that she is fond of.

Still, Strickland believes in doing her job and doing it well and emphasizes that monitoring parking is part of what she gets paid to do.