The school’s parking structure has been redesigned for the 2017-2018 school year. In disregarding tradition it alienates this year’s seniors that had spent three years anticipating the use of the senior lot.

Exclusive senior access to the senior lot is a privileged belief but it is born out of an acknowledgment of the senior class’ success and achievement in all their twelve academic years. Through deconstructing this tradition, a certain estrangement can be felt. A longstanding expectation for the seniors’ graduation year was entirely removed.

For some, the dissolution of this tradition is a good thing; it encouraged a sense of class superiority in seniors and juniors that drew separation between the classes and discouraged school unity.

The old system gave to seniors what could be called the privileged spots, which were closest to the school and had easier access to the street which made it easier to enter and exit before and after school. Under the new system, the “Viking Pass” is for those privileged spots, the “Gold Pass” is for more standard spots (the old junior lot) and a “Black Pass” is for the economy spots (the old sophomore lot).

The tiers are, logically, differentiated by price, Viking being the most expensive and Black being the least. Students’ access to parking on campus is then determined by the pass they purchased.

The decision to revamp the system was motivated by a number of things. First and foremost, students parking in the sophomore lot ran the risk of their vehicles being damaged. Rather than being paved, the lot is composed solely of gravel which gets kicked up and chips paint. It was with this in mind that the decision to make student parking more equitable became realized.

The financial reasoning behind it is sound, that much is undeniable. With this new system, students can park reasonably and affordably no matter what, and more importantly, they can park fairly. To make all lots, each of different quality, the same price would be entirely unfair. That’s complicated though by the longstanding recognition that the senior lot was for seniors, the sophomore lot for sophomores and the junior lot for juniors.

Frankly, such separation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ultimately, that’s what lies at the root of the change: seniors deserve some separation from the younger classes as they are separate. That’s fundamental to the psychology of the grade level hierarchy, and doing away with it in effect equalizes something that isn’t equal.