Students interested in campus parking permits will have to go through a different process this summer when applying for next year’s allocation of spots.
While the old system was not a perfect plan, this replacement isn’t much better.
Students will now have two weeks to register for a lottery, from which the spots will be randomly allocated. Formerly, the process was first-come, first-served, with students able to register at 9 a.m. on the selected day.
Last year, 8,000 students vied for just 400 available parking spots. It was a rush to be one of the first to register, and success depended as much on a good internet connection as planning.
The new lottery process is set in stone for next year, and the Department of Public Service has said that there is a certain number of spots for each class, and students will be filtered by their class year.
Since seniors are more likely to live off campus, DPS should make the most significant portion of the spots available to them. At least half of the spots should be allocated to seniors. The remaining half should be split between juniors and sophomores.
This new shift in policy most directly benefits those who like to sleep in a little longer and institutionalizes random selection.
Though the previous system was not ideal, it did reward students who were willing to plan and wake up early to secure a spot.
In future years, DPS should return to its first-come, first-served process.
