Booth attendant hands out tickets, watches students’ lives on campus

Marcy Vaughn spends eight hours a day, five days a week in what she calls “her own little world.”

As the IU Parking Operations booth attendant in front of the Indiana Memorial Union, Vaughn spends her day watching everything that goes on around her.

For 13 years she has been venturing out to her world, located in the middle of an intersection. If you ask her what her job is, she says it’s to watch traffic, give directions and write tickets.

The ticket writing, she said, is the worst part.

“I get stereotyped as wicked or mean for being in here,” she said. “What the students don’t realize is it’s not me who made the regulations for the campus. I’m only here trying to do the job of enforcing the rules.”

The center of campus is primarily for pedestrian traffic, she said. Anyone driving by Vaughn’s “little planet” without an A parking pass or permission from Vaughn will find a $40 ticket in the mail or charged to their bursar bill.

Handing out six to 10 tickets a day, Vaughn said she has dealt with her fair share of angry people. But it’s also the people who keep her coming back.

“Every year I get to meet new freshmen,” she said. “You start to see them every day, and you get to follow them for the next four years.”

Even though many of Vaughn’s day-to-day interactions with students don’t go much beyond a hello and a wave, she said she still feels connected to everyone. She doesn’t get to know them on a personal level, but everyday she watches them live their lives.

She said the people she gives directions to also bring a little joy to her day. In the span of 30 minutes, Vaughn gave directions to a flower delivery man, a family looking for sorority houses and a man looking for the Jordan Avenue Garage.

She greets them all with a “Hello, how are you,” politely gives them directions and shouts “Have a great day,” as they drive off.

When she’s not writing tickets or giving directions and leaves the solidarity of her private world, Vaughn spends her time with family.

“Family is my life,” she said.

Between her husband, 10-year-old daughter, two sons in their 20s and her active church life, Vaughn said her hands are full.

Her family is only getting bigger, though, with her first grandchild — a boy — due in January.

Vaughn said her whole family is very excited, but she has already decided she is not going to allow herself to be called “grandma.” At the age of 50, Vaughn already calls herself old, so she said to her being called grandma makes it sound like she is 70
or 80.

“He can call me mamma, mema, nana or whatever he wants,” she said. “As long as it’s not grandma.”