After moving its offices to College Park office building in December, University Parking Services is gearing up for more changes during the summer semester.

Bob Mason, supervisor of the enforcement staff, said it has been difficult for some students to find the new offices because a lot of them have not had to travel out to College Park before the move.

The staff has been using the space to implement several upgrades, including new employee paid parking instead of having departments pay for the cost.

According to the Parking Services website, classified, administrative staff employees and full-time non-represented faculty members hired before June 30 will receive a permanent one-time increase to their pay to offset the cost.

The goal, according to the website, is to allow the departments to save money for their “primary mission of educating students.”

University Parking and Shuttle Manager Aaron Kane said the program will help employees “ease into a cost-sharing approach.”

“Over time, it will reduce the financial burden placed on the University’s budget,” Kane said.

The service’s parking software received a major update with a new web-based system that allows faculty/staff, students and guests manage their parking account, Kane said. Appeals and payments can now be done online and the results can be seen online.

Mason said the new software comes with the usual challenges of new technology, but will be beneficial in the long run, and includes the possibility of the ticket writers taking photographs. The photograph will not be printed, but will be incorporated into the system.

“Historically, we’ve had people who want to park illegally and then tell us they didn’t, but now we’re actually able to take pictures [of] a permit that isn’t valid that might be displayed or somebody being parked [illegally].” Mason said. “It’s certainly progress.”

Mason added that any student can go into the system through My Parking and modify their settings, such as changing the license plate that is registered to a specific pass.

Parking enforcer Jodi Bates said the software can associate the automobile with its parking pass as soon as tickets start being written.

This will likely help students with Parking Services’ new rule beginning Aug. 22. Motorcycles and other two-wheeled vehicles no longer need to display passes, as the software can check and see if the vehicle is registered.

Kane said this helps people who had a hard time finding a place to display the passes or risk having them stolen from the vehicle.

Parking Services also plans to work on the campus with plans to upgrade all of the lots within the next three years, Kane said.

The first lots to be worked on will be Lot 18 by the Field House as well as Lot 10 by the Ice Arena. Kane said Lot 10’s construction may go into fall but will finish early in the semester.

“We’re looking at additional lot possibilities in various locations on campus,” Kane said. “The ones that make sense are going to be added, which should create additional commuter parking on campus.”

Kane said certain lots will go offline while they are worked on, but they are not expected to last longer than a week at a time.

Parking Services is taking careful consideration in planning for new lots.

“We want to make sure it’s right,” Kane said. “We don’t want to put it somewhere without crosswalk access.”

More students are also being added to Parking Services staff in the coming year to help students in the Criminal Justice Department.

“Being able to provide an opportunity to gain real world experience for students focusing on a career in criminal justice made perfect sense,” Kane said. “We are able to educate students in a challenging field and the students are able to add meaningful experience to their resumes.”