Driving Up Requirements

Administration announces new eligibility requirement for parking, students express frustration

By Pi Guy and Ryan Gao’s Sister

On Mar. 3, the Stevenson administration announced that students must now achieve a minimum SAT score of 1360 in order to be eligible for on-campus parking. The new policy, named Test-2-Park (T2P), goes into effect at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year and will require students to perform at the 95th percentile of SAT-testers nationwide to park at Stevenson.

Parking spaces that are closer to Stevenson will be awarded to students who score into higher percentiles. Once results are released, juniors will be encouraged to submit their score reports from the schoolwide April 2022 SAT. T2P aims to resolve parking issues that the administration has been facing in recent years, such as overcrowding in lots D and E, while also promoting standardized testing.

“We were concerned about the uncontrollable parking situation, a worry that has been compounded by the rise of the @stevensonbadparking Instagram account from a few months ago,” Roy Gallagher, the new Director of Parking, said. “So we asked ourselves how we could resolve the issue most effciently and realized that students could beneft from parking spaces being an academic reward.”

Although the administration views the policy as an opportunity for student growth, some students disagree. Many are infuriated with what they describe as an administrative infringement to their access to on-campus parking.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening—this is a clear and unfair overstep of the administration,” Clara Wu ’23 said. “Now I have to pay for parking and achieve a good SAT score. Why are colleges going test-optional but the parking lot isn’t?”

Nevertheless, such

dissent has Snot prevented administrators from resolutely planning to enforce the new minimum SAT score condition in their ongoing meetings and consultations with the Student Services department. Some students have even conceded and acknowledged the potential merits of the new T2P system.

“When I frst heard of T2P, I was outraged because I thought the school was perpetuating academic rivalry,” Manuel Cabrera ’24 said. “But my mind has changed since I realized that students are so desperate for parking that this would actually be effective. Personally, the rule has inspired me to buy workbooks and open a Khan Academy account for SAT preparation.” While the consensus of the student body remains inconclusive, Cabrera is one of many students who have begun studying to meet the new 1360 minimum for the upcoming school year. There have also been reports of a recent rise in these overall preparation efforts. “We have received emails and phone calls from various local tutoring businesses inquiring about the sudden infux of students,” Gallagher said. “Everywhere I look around Stevenson, I see students with their new SAT prep books. All I can say is that T2P will be a success thanks to the determination of our students.”