Over the past few weeks, SGA and the Department of Parking and Transportation have worked together to propose a new parking model for VSU.

The Tiered Parking proposal divides VSU into three different color-coded zones: gold, blue and green. These zones come with paid parking passes whose price and priority vary by color.

The Tiered Parking model has a first-come-first-serve policy with first priority going to seniors and last priority going to freshmen. Gold zones are closest to residence halls and are the most costly in price. Blue zones are of a moderate distance with moderate pricing. Green zones are the farthest from campus but have the cheapest price.

Currently, student parking passes are $50 for the entire school year, $25 for a single semester and $15 for the summer. In the Tiered Parking model, gold passes will be $70, blue passes $50 and green passes $30. The citation rate will also see a $5 increase.

The majority of VSU’s seniors are commuters, while freshmen are the main people who desire to park closest to residence halls. If that’s the case, the Tiered Parking model has failed the student body.

By the time students become juniors and seniors they have already moved off-campus and become commuters. That being said, why would they need to buy expensive gold passes when they could easily buy the cheap green passes? Commuters don’t need to be close to residence halls, but freshmen do.

Students have always complained at SGA meetings about parking, whether it be about tickets or the convenience of their parking spaces; however, the Tiered Parking model will make parking on campus more expensive for those students who want more convenience.

Though the new parking model is not finalized, we at The Spectator think that VSU’s current model is fine the way it is.

Every campus has their issues with parking, but at the end of the day, things aren’t so bad. Where we see issues, such as the Blazer Safe Ride and convenient parking, we should obviously apply change, but changing parking as a whole is a sorry decision that sweeps our problems under the rug.

Let’s keep our current parking model and try to improve upon it as best we can.

This editorial was written by a member of the editorial staff and expresses the general opinion of The Spectator.