How RHA can help
With the beginning of the school year come many different types of events. Some have to do with athletics, and others with clubs. The events put on by each respective residence hall varies quite a bit from execution to type of event. Mayfield has the paint war, while Walker does Float or Dye. Yet one event that is shared by all residence halls is the parking spot auction. The exact details vary, but basically a few choice spots are sold to students. This is put on by each dorm’s Residence Hall Association (RHA) and is one of their biggest fundraisers of the year. However, the parking spots are not always given to people who really need them.
Freshmen have to walk all the way from behind Hutchison Hall to their respective dorms. At the beginning of the semester, freshmen are forced to take multiple trips because of all the items they have brought to campus. Freshmen girls can also feel unsafe walking up at night. This makes it clear that freshmen would benefit far more from the RHA parking spots.
Therefore, we The Threefold believe that RHA should change their procedure involving the parking spot auction. We believe that freshmen should be given priority to purchase parking spots. This means RHA would start the auction as “freshman only.” This will allow incoming freshmen a chance to get the parking spots they need first.
We understand this is a fundraiser, and RHA needs to make money off of it. Decreasing the amount of people who are allowed to bid on each spot could potentially lower the amount of revenue they will receive in the fundraiser. However, this should not have a large affect on the revenue because freshmen are the students who will be more likely to spend the money on the spots. In the case that no freshmen want to spend the money on the parking, the auction can be opened up to everyone.
If RHA still felt concerned about decreased profits from the auction, they could also choose to compensate by increasing the initial cost of the bid. This could allow the parking spots to be sold at the same price even though fewer people are competing for the spots.
If all of these changes were put into action, freshmen would have a better opportunity to get the RHA parking spots. Having an RHA parking space will be the most beneficial to a freshmen walking from Hutch and the cost of changing this fundraiser to accommodate freshmen will be minimal. We The Threefold ask that the RHA consider these suggestions for next year.