Jul 24, 2015 02:49 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

A student at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) protested the school's "fee structure" by paying his parking tickets with pennies, Campus Reform reported.

Stephen Coyle, a third-year senior at UNC Charlotte, decided to cover the two parking tickets he received in June, totaling $110, with 11,000 pennies after learning that 20 percent of the money collected through fines remains on campus. The remaining 80 percent goes back to the state to support local elementary, middle and high schools.

"I started digging deeper of what the money was used for and 80 percent is redistributed to the other schools instead of keeping it on campus," Coyle told ABC News. "That's what upset me, which led to paying with the pennies."

In June, the 26-year-old math major went to three different banks to withdraw five $25-buckets worth of pennies. He then took the buckets of pennies, each weighing more than 20 pounds, into the Parking and Transportation Services office at UNC Charlotte and paid his fine.

Coyle told WCNC News that it took workers in the parking office approximately three hours and 40 minutes to count every single penny.

Coyle told ABC News that the purpose of his demonstration was to raise awareness for the way school fees are misallocated.

"I understand why the citations were there, so that wasn't the issue," he said. "We have a beautiful campus, but there are some severely neglected buildings. Lecture halls have missing seats, ceiling tiles are missing -- some of that money can be reinvested into the buildings."

He told Campus Reform that school officials could try to rectify financial issues within their institutions by reforming funding methods.  He told Campus Reform that he believes 80 percent of the funds being remitted to the state could be "allocated to scholarships and student organizations."

Since his penny protest, Coyle recently created online fundraising campaign page for the UNC Charlotte's Actuarial Science Club and "passed out flyers advocating for a change to the legislation limiting how much fine money [the university] can keep," The Charlotte Observer reported.

He recently created a Facebook page called "#LetThemCount." The page had more than 1,200 likes by Friday. 

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