Office Specialist

Towson University (TU) has earned distinction as both a top-100 public university and one of nation's great colleges to work for. Located north of Baltimore, TU currently enrolls more than 19,000 students and is the second-largest university in the prestigious University System of Maryland. Towson University fosters a climate that is grounded in respect to cultivating the intellectual and personal growth of the entire university community.

The Office Specialist is responsible for the day-to-day of the Customer Service section in Parking Services while using independent judgement to determine if circumstances warrant adjusting and/or exceptions to regular practices.  Areas of responsibilities will include customer service, account management (Flex, PeopleSoft, Pay by Phone system, etc.); will be assisting in the coordination of the Customer Service (Front Desk A&F Team) section operational activities responsibilities, recruitment, training, and associated tasks. This role will require strong knowledge of all Parking & Transportation policies and procedures while understanding how to apply them when resolving customer issues.

This role has been identified as essential personnel and may be required work outside of normal business hours in support of campus events.

Account Management – Escalations & Exception processing:

• Responsible for processing and handling customer requests and escalations. Ensure decisions are in line with policy and procedure intent.
• Responsible for handling customer escalations from A&F front desk section staff including complaints, appeals, exceptions, suspected inappropriate use of permits, excessive violation of department regulations, parking sanctions, etc.
• Responsible for completing required in-depth research on customer accounts which may involve University Billing Office, MVA, Towing Company, etc.
• Coordination with PTS Operation IT Analyst for any parking management system issues creating customer and/or account issues to resolve where appropriate.

Department Liaison:

• Partner and serve as the liaison for Parking & Transportation Services with cross-functional teams for any customer service-related exceptions, escalations, issues, and/or concerns for parking permits, appeals, and citations for other sections within the department, other university departments, and external vendors.

Customer Account Processing

• Special Permit Request - Through research and applying critical thinking, process special permit requests to determine the best and appropriate permit type if applicable criteria have been met to approve and/or deny requests.  Use independent judgment to determine if a parking exception or modification to exception can be accommodated with existing or through coordination to create permit types (where applicable/appropriate) to the routine approach is warranted.
• Appeal Processing – review appeal requests, complete in-depth research, and based on the information determine if the fine should be reduced and if so by how much.
• Exception Requests – review requests for exceptions to normal approaches for permits, parking assignments, etc. to determine if the request should be approved, and if approved, define criteria (where, how long, cost, etc.) for the exception.
• Account issue resolution - through in-depth research and using independent judgment, determine if any mistake, error, etc occurred and determine the appropriate resolution to include account updates, refund processing, credit & debit processing, process adjustments, coordination with other offices, ASBO, Student Billing, MVA, Central Collections, etc.
• Process requests for virtual permits to include department gue