TO:  All UMMC Faculty, Staff and Students

FROM:  Dr. James E. Keeton, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean, School of Medicine

SUBJECT:  Campus Parking During Construction

After months of preparation, the Medical Center is about to embark on an ambitious construction program that is vital to the future of this institution. This construction will take place in two phases – with the first phase to begin in early July.

During the first phase, the new Translational Research Center will rise in the shadow of our Arthur C. Guyton Research Center.  During the second phase, a long-awaited parking garage will be built to the east of our School of Dentistry building. And the new School of Medicine building, anchoring our education district on the north side of campus, will be constructed immediately north of the Learning Resource Center.

Unfortunately, this welcome and needed growth of our enterprise comes with a temporary cost – the loss of parking spaces on campus.

Parking remains a challenge for academic health science centers across the country. We are no different. Although we strive to provide adequate parking to accommodate our faculty, staff and students, parking on campus remains a privilege, and our priority must be our patients and visitors.

The UMMC Parking Committee, in cooperation with Physical Facilities, has determined how best to facilitate the redistribution of parking spaces directly affected by these construction projects in a manner that is consistent with the institution’s existing Parking Policy. (Refer to the policy at http://bit.ly/UMMCParkingPolicy.)

Some of you who now park on campus will be relocated to another on-campus lot. Many of you – up to 650, in fact – will be asked to park at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium. Those of you who are to be displaced from your current parking spots will be notified by your respective supervisors, who will share the details of the new parking assignments. You will also receive notice of new parking assignments directly from Physical Facilities. Parkers assigned to the stadium will no longer have the biweekly parking fee deducted from their pay.

This will not come as welcome news, especially to those who have recently “graduated” from stadium parking to spaces on campus. However, we are fortunate to be in a position to offer free parking at the stadium – a brief walk from most campus destinations. Eventually, many stadium parkers will have the opportunity to return to on-campus parking when Garage C is completed, although at a higher monthly rate.

Preparations are under way for the influx of additional vehicles to the stadium. Campus Police will enhance its presence in the stadium lots, looking out for those arriving at and leaving the Medical Center at all hours of the day or night. Additional perimeter fencing around overflow lots adjacent to the stadium and additional video cameras also promise to strengthen parking security.

Our shuttle transit system, which does an exceptional job of ferrying employees and students from designated shuttle stops throughout the stadium parking lot to the UMMC campus, will be bolstered by the addition of two buses during peak traffic times. Newly designated handicapped spaces at each of the stadium stops will make parking for our disabled employees and visitors easier. Please note, parking in handicapped spaces without proper handicapped designation will result in a ticket.

To those of you who will be receiving new parking assignments during these construction phases, I ask for your understanding and cooperation. This short-term inconvenience is indeed necessary for the long-term benefit of the institution.

Let me assure all of our employees, as more desirable parking resources become available on the Medical Center campus, the Parking Committee will ensure that our parking spaces are allocated among our employees in a fair and appropriate manner by carefully adhering to the institution’s Parking Policy.

In the meantime, I ask for everyone’s cooperation and patience to help make this parking transition as smooth as possible for our patients, guests and you, our valued employees and students.

Thank you.