We’ve all heard the horror stories from College of DuPage’s parking lots, and most of us live through them everyday. To say there is parking problem is an understatement; in order to get a good spot, students have to leave their house well before their class time and scan the parking lots up and down. If they still are unable to find a parking space,  they can end up walking quite the distance in the freezing cold, only to arrive to class late. But the very worst part of the entire endeavor comes just before reaching the building that was once so far off in the distance. The very worst part is passing by empty space after empty space, all reserved for those lucky enough to have a parking pass.

These next few weeks are by far the most difficult to not have a parking pass. Long walks in the summer heat now seem more like a stroll through the park. However, parking passes and those who have them are not evil, and believe it or not, they weren’t made for the sole purpose of annoying those that go without. The idea is actually pretty smart; pay a small fortune and avoid the daily struggle of finding parking. And while it does seem as though the spaces reserved for parking pass holders are so often empty, it’s important to remember that those people paid the price—literally—to have that spot for a semester. Whether or not they use it is their own problem.

In the meantime, the issue for everyone else is clear: there are simply not enough parking spaces. The solution, on the other hand, isn’t quite as easy. Expanding parking, either with more lots or a parking deck, would be an enormously expensive, difficult, and inconvenient task. There is the Chaparral Express, newly implemented shuttles that take students from the SRC to the western parking lot to save them a walk, but even those aren’t an ideal solution. So what more can be done?

This is when the parking passes come in to play. We as students have to make the decision of either paying $85 for a parking pass or enduring long distance walks while our faces turn numb from the cold and our skin cracks from the dry air. It’s our own personal “Sophie’s Choice” of the semester, but if you’re currently regretting your decision of not buying a parking pass before the “Sold Out” signs were hung, today might be your lucky day. A very limited supply of parking passes is now available once again for this semester. It’s first come first serve, so make your way down to the cashier’s office in the BIC before it’s too late and spare yourself from a parking nightmare for the remainder of the year.