Parking Passes Should Prioritize Seniors and Hard Work

Moeller’s new parking lot

For most of us, we will have to get a parking pass to park on campus. At Moeller, it has been difficult for some students to park on campus. For me, I first got my driver’s license halfway through sophomore year. I didn't have a parking pass, so I got rides from friends and upperclassmen that had one. That shortly ended once we had online learning at the end of the 2020 year, and I was excited to share a pass with my friends the following school year. Junior year was fine sharing with other people, but it was difficult and sometimes annoying having to wait on people to show up to Public Parking or having to find a way to get to Moeller because someone had to go to school early. Senior year, I once again shared rides and a parking pass. It was fine sharing with a friend, and things were going well but I would've much rather just gone to school whenever I wanted. At that time, I still had to ride with a friend in order to get to school. Finally, I got my own pass once the new parking lot was built and I have enjoyed it ever since.

To get a parking pass at Moeller, it seems you have a few options to receive one. First, if you want to get a parking pass for yourself, you need to raise or donate $1,000 to the Fall Raffle, where you are guaranteed to get yourself a pass. If you do not reach that mark, but still want to get a parking pass, you have the option to share with a friend for $250, whether it is a close friend, teammate, or neighbor. This is after the Fall Raffle, and is filled out on a website close to the end of the year.

The school is in support of us, as students, to go out and work for what we want to earn. It doesn't matter the methods that other people use to get the pass in the Moeller Fall Raffle, but they want people to work and earn the pass. There is nothing that the school can do to stop people from asking their parents to donate to the school for a parking pass, it will happen no matter what.

Moeller will always take in donations, especially since the Moeller Fall Raffle is used to help with tuition assistance, which helps kids go to Moeller who may not be able to afford it. If the school lowered the incentive price of the parking pass, it would perhaps mean that less money would go to tuition assistance, which would then take away from the amount of kids that Moeller is able to help. This year, there was 211 students that have already paid or collected donations for the Fall Raffle, for the $1,000 for the parking pass. This is Moeller’s biggest fundraiser for tuition assistance, and over the last couple of years Moeller has raised over $300,000 for tuition assistance.

The parking tag from the 2021-2022 school year.

I think that getting a guaranteed parking pass through the fall raffle is way too expensive. When I was a freshman, the price was $850, and last year it skyrocketed to $1,000. I think that it is unfair that people get their own pass because they just get their parents to pay $1,000 dollars, while others struggle to earn the $1,000 or don't earn that mark at all.

Especially as seniors, I think that it is important that the system should change, or the price of a pass in the fall raffle should be lowered. There should be a priority for the seniors to get a pass. Seniors should be able to enjoy their senior year, and having to find rides and ways to get to school is something that they shouldn't have to do. I know several sophomores who had their parents pay for their pass, while I also know seniors, including myself, that were sharing a pass up until the point the new parking lot was built.

There are colleges where you can buy a pass for two semesters for at least $150, $200, and $350. I have even asked a student at Saint Xavier, and they have to pay just $100 for a parking pass at their school. I think that there should either be a priority for the seniors to get a pass, or the pass should be less expensive for the senior class.

The system of obtaining a parking pass through the Fall Raffle is something that should change. I think that they could change the system by giving the seniors a priority for the single parking pass, while also bringing the price down to what it was before. I understand why they want us to pay, because we should earn it, and it is going to a good cause, but it definitely should be less. This system would be better, because no matter what system there is, there should be work in order to get a pass on campus.

Getting my own parking pass for the remainder of the year has helped me enjoy my senior year better, and has taken away the obstacle of sharing a pass with others.