Regularly, more than 2,500 students and more than 9,100 full-time and part-time employees travel to and from the Medical Center. That's a larger population than a lot of towns and cities in Mississippi. It's obvious we've grown over the last several years, and with growth comes change as we work to better position ourselves for the future.

Accommodating thousands of employees and students, in addition to patients and visitors, with on-campus parking is a challenge. Add to that several construction projects to improve patient care and cultivate research that temporarily displace employee parking spaces and the challenge increases. We are hopeful that this is a relatively brief inconvenience. We anticipate more spaces upon completion of a new parking garage east of the School of Dentistry in early 2014.

To guide us in operating our parking system, UMMC has adopted a new campus parking policy.  The policy includes a variety of topics, including general principles, the hierarchy by which parking assignments are made, and enforcement standards.  The policy can be found on the Division of Physical Facilities website. A direct link to the policy is at http://physfac.umc.edu/docs/parking_policy.pdf.  All parking-related requests or inquiries should be e-mailed to parking@umc.edu or to PhysicalFacilities-Parking in the Outlook Address Book.   E-mails sent to these addresses are routed to a group of people who will respond in a timely manner.

To help with management of these and other changes, two employees with extensive experience have been hired. Chris Burney will be the interim executive director for planning, effective Aug. 6. Chris joins us from Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut where he was administrative director of facilities management. His job is to oversee the continued operation, coordination, and consolidation of construction, master planning, space management, and infrastructure on campus.

Phil Nido will be the interim University Physicians chief operating officer, effective Aug. 13. He will work to improve UP operations and facilitate the consolidation of UP into the Medical Center over the next year. He brings 30 years of experience in medical practice management and hospital operations.

We are growing rapidly, and we want to make sure that this growth occurs in a coordinated, efficient and cost-effective way. As part of this process, we will do our very best to keep you informed of the changes so you are up to date.