Last night, Student Council unanimously passed the Medical School Parking Resolution, which encouraged the University to establishing 15 to 20 University-provided parking spots for Medical students within walking distance from the hospital.
"The current situation with parking is that Medical students park in Scott Stadium and can take a shuttle to the hospital," Medical School Rep. Dana Berle said. "Unfortunately, shuttles only run every 10 to 15 minutes."
She added that this is not safe as far as student experiences are concerned, especially for Medical students on surgery or OB-GYN clerkship rotations.
Berle said she received an e-mail from Medical student Kristin Lane who has had uncomfortable encounters at night with homeless people and mentally- ill patients.
The Mullholland Society, the Medical School's student government system, has been engaged in an ongoing battle to obtain safer parking spots for more than 10 years, Mullholland Society President Anthony Debendent said.
"Passing this bill is a huge major step in the right direction for us," Debendent said. "There are definitely safety issues and safety concerns. [Berle] has managed to bring it to the forefront, which is amazing."
Outgoing Mulholland Society President Michael Richardson said he has been working on this issue from the hospital angle while Berle brought the issue to Council.
"There is no parking around at all, and there are people on late-night rotations leaving after midnight," Richardson said. "With the serial rapist hanging out around JPA, we thought the hospital should make a move to get parking for rotations that are scary for women."
Richardson said previous atttempts to acquire parking for Medical students near the Medical Center did not succeed.
"Last May, there was a new parking lot being built around the hospital," Richardson said. "And I thought, maybe
this is our chance to get somewhere. We didn't get any spots in the South Garage, but what they did give us was access to the Employee Transit Bus."
Richardson said the ETS system was not enough.
"It didn't help all that much," he said. "I kept trying from the hospital angle. [Medical School] Dean Garson is kind of on our side, and he has been talking to the University Architect to get spots. [Berle] has been going after this from the Student Council angle. She took data and ran with it."
Berle said she is encouraged by the passing of the resolution in Council.
"This is a big stride in efforts to get parking for medical students," Berle said. "It's about safety for U.Va. students in filling course requirements at the hospitals. This will be solving a major problem."
Debenedet said the next step entails working with the University and Medical Center parking officials.
"This is a major victory, no doubt," he said. "My hat's off to [Berle]. We need as much student voice as possible."
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