With a plethora of other changes that have been in the works for this semester at NSU, there will also be changes to the way that students, faculty and staff park on campus. The Office of Facilities Management at NSU has announced a new parking management software coming to NSU’s campuses. This new parking system, titled NuPark, provides a custom website integrating license plate technology with a mobility platform, allowing for a more straightforward way to interact with the parking department at NSU.
NuPark will provide a one-stop platform for members of the NSU community to interact with the parking department on campus and utilize all the resources that the department provides. Services that would normally require students and employees to appear in person, such as registering a vehicle, will be streamlined to an online format through the NuPark platform.
Returning Sharks may remember significant changes occurring with parking on campus last year. These changes included a prohibition on backing into parking spaces, as well as the implementation of the “pay-by-phone” parking meters scattered about campus for guests parking on campus.
However, the changes with parking for this semester are a little more advanced than the prior changes. This new system contains a wide array of features to provide ease of access to all members of the NSU community. Most notably, the system will be available on all smartphone devices, which puts the system in a convenient place for a majority of individuals on campus.
Some of the services and abilities of the new parking software include easy vehicle registration for both residential and commuter students, the ability to purchase vehicle permits for employees, pre-paid permits for guests, parking citation payments and appeals, visitor permits on an annual, monthly and daily basis, and finally, the ability to add or change vehicle information for students and employees alike. Additionally, the One-Stop-Shop will still have the ability to issue decals — which will still be required — for vehicles, but only after an individual has registered through the NuPark system.
Currently, students and employees on NSU’s campus have a grace period before the go-live date is officially announced. After the system launches sometime this semester, all members of NSU’s community will be required to access and purchase permits through the new software.
As explained by Marco Bravo, special events parking services manager, “The program is going to be great as far as customer service because it’s going to provide all the services that we had before and more and it will be done online… The communication between public safety, facilities management and the NSU community will be enhanced to a better quality.”
Shane Lam, associate director of field operations for public safety, explained the thought process behind integrating this new system.
“Recognizing that we had opportunities to enhance our customer service to the community. Prior to this, all appeal actions took place in person; all students had to set an appointment and appear at some date in the future. That will all go away, making it more convenient to adjudicate these cases. The registering of the vehicle is going to be a lot more convenient and accessible to our campus community. So again, it’s customer service, eliminating waste and becoming overall more efficient,” said Lam.
The NuPark system has already been integrated on other college campuses, including universities such as Florida International University, University of Delaware and Rutgers. The system may also be familiar to those who have utilized public transport in the Miami-Dade area, as the Passport system NuPark is merged with is used for the Metrorail and Metrobus.
