Thursday’s game day map shows where students can and cannot park. (SMU)

The parking situation this semester has been absolutely terrible. On several occasions we’ve seen people park illegally, and we completely understand why they do. Finding a parking spot this year is much more difficult than it should be.

Students often have to spend 15 to 20 minutes finding a parking spot and how long it takes is entirely a factor of luck. Add in a football game and all the parking constraints that come with that, and parking becomes unbearable.

Game day parking is always difficult, but at least in most cases you don’t have to try to park unless you want to go to the game. This was not the case Thursday, as there was a game on campus, and some students were forced to actually pay money in order to park just to get to class or work.

We spend quite a large amount on parking passes each year, and sometimes we don’t even have an opportunity to use it. Often all of the lots and garages are full, and we are forced to park in the metered parking or parking that isn’t exclusive to those with SMU parking passes.

All of these problems have been persistent since the beginning of the school year, but yesterday made parking completely unbearable. All of the lots were reserved for game attendees aside from only three: Heroy, Airline and the Law garage. Those three alone are not even close to enough to hold the student body.

We realize that it wasn’t entirely SMU’s decision to have the game on a school day, but because it is, they should do something to help rectify this awful situation. In order for football attendance to increase, SMU has to provide enough spots for students to park and attend the game. SMU encouraged students to take the Mustang Express, but it is unfair for students to give up their parking spots on game day after paying a hefty sum each year to be able to park on campus. Rather, SMU should allow students to park for free on campus on game days.