In September 2017, the University announced a new policy requiring students to live on campus during their first year. They cite research that indicates living on campus for the first year leads to higher academic performance and better community involvement.

While this will be a positive decision for the University, there will be huge consequences for the campus parking situation. The University currently has 23,500 parking spots on campus according to the LSU Parking and Transportation Services’ website. However, as of Spring 2017, the University had over 29,000 enrolled students, not including faculty and staff. While not all of these people have cars on campus every day, there still should be more accessible parking for students.

With on-campus amenities growing with the student body, the need for first-year students to have cars goes down tremendously. Stores and restaurants like Matherne’s Market, Chipotle, Raising Cane’s and CVS are all within walking distance of campus and make it easy for on-campus students to function without a car.

The Tiger Trails Transit System is another great resource provided by the University to help students on and off campus get around for free. Using this form of transportation is much cheaper than bringing a car on campus. It is also much more convenient than a car during the week because the buses run through campus.

One would think adding onto the current parking situation would be the logical fix to the addition of 900 more on-campus students. Because campus is nestled within Baton Rouge, expanding outward is a challenge.

A solution to these parking issues may appear to be building parking decks around campus near the residential halls. However, on the parking page of the University’s website, it is made clear parking decks probably won’t happen because they are simply too expensive. The website breaks down the price per space to build a basic parking lot versus a parking deck, and the difference is staggering. A parking lot costs approximately $1,500 per space, while a parking deck costs $15,000 to $18,000 per space.

It is doubtful the University is going to ban freshmen parking on campus, but they should consider some measures to help discourage the waste of space.

First, the University should consider tiered pricing for parking passes. If it is more expensive for a first-year student to park on campus, it may discourage all of the cars.

There are other ways to help this issue, as well. The University could make the parking lots for on-campus freshmen farther away from the middle of campus. Many of these students are not using their vehicles during the school week, and those spots could be used by commuters to make their parking experience less difficult.

Freshmen without a legitimate reason should not be allowed to have cars on campus. Being stuck on campus as a first-year student is a rite of passage. It fosters community, ingenuity and problem-solving skills. It also forces students to walk or take public transportation, two things many young people often choose to avoid.

Sarah Grobety is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Atlanta, Georgia.