*This article was written by Tara Orr. Tara is a freshman, Marketing major from Blue Springs, MO!*

Hey Bears! SGA’s Administrative Service Committee has some exciting news about a new program coming to Missouri State in Spring 2018 called Bear With Me. Bear With Me is a program designed to give students the chance to work off a parking ticket with community service hours! Cool right? The program is simple. Those who receive a parking ticket (lower than $50) have the opportunity to complete 2 hours of community service within 15 days of receiving the ticket in order to waive the fine. This unique program allows you to save your money and give back to the Springfield community at the same time!

The terms of this program are:

• The ticket must be issued by Missouri State University Safety and Transportation
• The ticket cannot be valued more than $50.00
• No citation issued due to illegal parking in a handicap space can be replaced with service hours
• Only one ticket per student in an academic year can be converted by this program
• The program ends after $3,000 worth of parking citations have been worked off

A student on the Administrative Service team shared her thoughts with us on the new program, “I think Bear With Me is an amazing way for students to get engaged in the community! Hopefully after doing the two hours of service required, they will enjoy it so much they will want to go back and help out the community even more. It makes getting a parking ticket not so bad.”

If you have any questions regarding this new program, visit our website or search “Bear With Me” on Campus Link!