As DePaul College Prep looks for ways to improve daily life on campus, a new parking system has been implemented for this school year for student drivers. This system includes different color-coded sections to designate parking areas for certain groups of students, making it easier for everyone to know exactly where to park. While this system was made to organize parking more efficiently, it has received mixed reviews from the school community.

In past school years, the parking system at DePaul College Prep was strictly first come first serve — no longer for the 2024-2025 school year.

To have a parking pass for on campus parking it is $500 fee. Students are assigned a section in the north parking lot based on colors such as, green, red, white, yellow, blue, and purple. While the white and purple sections are located in the back, the green and red areas are scattered throughout the middle areas. The purple section, mainly consisting of juniors, is the lot next to Lane Tech.

This school year, Assistant Dean Ricardo Cotto is playing a major role in the new parking system. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Cotto teaches in the Kinetic Wellness department, giving him a unique perspective, as he is attentive to student needs and campus safety daily.

“As we continue to assess the growth of our campus and student body, managing our campus in the safest way possible, and the fact that parking lots need to be maintained. These factors, specifically safety and being able to know which vehicles are on campus, we made the decision to go to a paid parking system.” Cotto said.

Public and private schools around the Chicagoland area have implemented paid parking on campus, with DePaul College Prep being one the latest to do so.

“As one of the last schools in Chicago to not have a paid parking system, we did research with our neighboring schools, to get an understanding of the kinds of programs they run, and in the end made the decision to make parking for licensed juniors and seniors put at a 500 dollar fee.” Cotto said.

The approach to create the parking system was not only influenced by challenges from past years and to better safety on campus, but maintaining a parking lot comes with a price.

Cotto said, “As far as maintaining parking lots, we’ve got to routinely paint new lines, patch holes in the asphalt, there is a sewage and drain system that needs to be maintained, along with snow removal. All of those things come with a price.”

Initially, the decision was to assign numbers for each student with a pass, but it was too expensive to paint each individual number.This led to the final idea of creating six different color zones, such as the Purple Zone, consisting mainly of juniors, the Green Zone, which is the front area that consists mainly of seniors, and the Red, White, Blue, and Yellow Zones.

However, these changes to the parking system have received a substantial amount of negative feedback. Students have voiced their dissatisfaction, highlighting various inconveniences and problems they have faced.

Senior Marizabel Pena, who has a parking pass for the white section has expressed her frustration with the new system. She said that “her spot is not guaranteed,” and “if she is late one day, she is forced to park farther away.”

Senior Grace Leonard also expressed similar concerns. Although she feels this new parking system is a step up from last year, she thinks there are still a lot of issues surrounding it.

Leonard said, “When I first purchased my parking pass, I did not realize I would not have a specific spot.” With the freedom to park anywhere in her section she feels it makes things a lot more stressful in the morning.

Despite these problems, both seniors feel very safe in this parking lot. They know that their cars are secure and protected due to all the security measures. These security measures include constant security watch, gates, and cameras.

Overall, the new colored system for the parking lot has received lots of mixed opinions. While some appreciate the organized structure, others, in particular seniors, feel disadvantaged by the lack of guaranteed spots.