A line of cars proceeds steadily into the Masters Campus while a couple yards over on, 49 Clinton Ave, Jack Costo ‘27 struggles to shimmy his green Jeep into a barely-there parallel parking spot. There is one car in front, one behind and a telephone pole to his side. His car does not come out of the event unscathed. Neither does the pole.

Each morning, Clinton Avenue is lined with student cars, since on campus, unless you are a senior, student parking is banned. This makes parking limited for juniors who drive to campus.

Having only been able to find one spot in front of 49 Clinton, Costo said that while he doesn’t blame Masters for the scratch, he was put in an unfortunate situation.“It was only the second day of school and I had trouble finding a parking spot. I know lots of people who are about to take their driver’s tests within this semester. So I think that the problem is only going to get worse,” Costo said.

The parking problem isn’t limited to juniors. Seniors and staff face issues of their own. With juniors having limited parking, they sometimes venture into the senior parking lot, which reduces the already-limited number of senior spots. 

Senior Danse Mobray said, “A lot of my friends have had trouble finding parking if they get here any minute after eight.”

Nathalie Jansky, another senior, said, “I’ve noticed that sometimes other people use the senior parking lot. I don’t know if it’s juniors or faculty, and I think it’s fine if faculty use it, but juniors probably shouldn’t be parking there.” 

The  Day Shift Supervisor of the security team at Masters, Dionisio Morelo, explained that the senior lot is only for seniors who have a Purple Pass, a parking permit that is obtained through the Masters Portal app. 

Further, faculty and students with electric cars are limited to two re-charging spots on campus. Costo said, “I think it is kind of silly that there are so few electric spots, especially because Masters wants to be a very up-to-date school.”

Some students have solutions in mind. One option that the school pursued was paving the parking lot behind Estherwood. Unfortunately, the town of Dobbs Ferry rejected this plan, meaning that while there are parking spots, there are fewer for students since it is unpaved. 

Morelo said, “It would be a good idea to pave the lot, since it would free up a lot more parking.”

One possible improvement is increased clarity regarding where students can park. The Masters Family Handbook (a.k.a the Student Handbook) outlines where students are allowed to park. It states that only seniors are granted the privilege to park on campus. The issue is that students are not likely to read the handbook. This leads to juniors parking in places they should not: the Senior Lot. 

Student driver Vincent von Jan ‘27 said, “I would love to have more transparency for traversing the Masters parking lots.”