You’re in your car, it is 8 a.m., and the parking lot is full with tons of people trying to get in. You’re tired and irritable, and you can hear the honks and angry shouts from other motorists, not to mention the fumes from the car in front of you are making your eyes water.

Finally a space opens up and you speed toward it, thinking that its your lucky day, but just as you get there some sneaky person slides in, right in front of you, out of nowhere. No it is not the Cerritos Mall, the day after Christmas, it is the first day of the new semester at Cerritos College.

According to Wayne Rector, the parking coordinator for Campus Police, Cerritos College has a grand total of 4,156 parking spaces; minus the 710 that were taken away when the C-10 parking lot went under construction. With approximately 24,000 students, half of who probably drive to school, are 4,156 parking spaces enough?

The school does plan to put a parking structure on a ballot to be voted on in March. While this is a welcome change, it could take a long time for the structure to be built, if it is even voted for.

In the meanwhile, what are the students to do? Why not utilize the 40 or so dirt spaces surrounding the light posts in the parking lot close to the strawberry fields, or work with the surrounding police departments and try to prevent them from giving us tickets for parking on the streets.

We paid the $20 for the dumb parking permits, why should we have to worry about getting a ticket simply because we have to resort to parking on the streets in order to get to class on time? The school should pay for every ticket that a student gets as a result of lack of parking.