After an 18-hour shift at University Hospital, waiting another hour before getting to bed was excruciating for fourth-year medical student Alison Schick.
Staying at the hospital until 2 a.m. to finish her shift is not unusual for Schick. With her car parked at the E-lot near Red Butte Garden?a 15 minute walk through the dark and desolate parking lots of the medical complex?one night, she decided to try the escort service provided by hospital security.
The E-lot would be too far for the security escorts, she was told, and she ended up waiting a half-hour for an officer with a car.
“I want to get to bed and sleep,” Schick said.
The experience is not uncommon for third- and fourth-year medical students who cover long shifts at the hospital for their rotations?getting hands-on experience working at various clinical departments. Many are on shoestring budgets and resort to parking at the small economy lot. Also, shuttle service ends at 12:30 a.m.
“It’s very dangerous for medical students who get off at 2 in the morning,” complained Schick, who eventually abandoned the escort idea in favor of getting to bed earlier.
Many students brave the journeys to their cars each night and morning as Schick does, but surprisingly, assault crimes have been rare in upper-campus parking lots. Although there are no separate crime statistics available for that area of the campus, University of Utah Police Department officers recall only a few isolated incidents.
“It really hasn’t been a problem,” said UUPD detective Victoria Pearson. She thinks it has been “more or less pure luck” that there have been only a few assault cases in the parking lots, but Pearson suggested that training programs and the installation of emergency phones have probably helped.
“We try to educate people to pay attention to their surroundings,” Pearson said, “and report anything they think is suspicious.”
The threat of attacks is not the only anxiety students have to face. Because the parking lots lack sidewalks, pedestrians have to walk on the roads frequented by speeding cars and campus shuttles.
Last year, Angela Hanna was in charge of “the Roast,” an annual medical student social event where they put on skits to lampoon medical school life. A recruiting video spoof mocked the parking situation; students fell on the snow paved road and splattered by sludge sent off by passing cars.
“It’s always under construction,” Hanna, a third year medical student, said about the parking lots. “They never give us any warning?We petitioned. They tell us there’s nothing they can do.”
Norm Chambers, director of auxiliary services, which oversees Transportation and Parking Services, expects the situation to improve soon. Chambers said a utility project in the parking lot south of Huntsman Cancer Institute had pushed student parking farther away. When the construction finishes, the current lots would move nearer to the hospital.
“They have to walk a little farther now,” Chambers said, “but it will be better in December.”
Hanna commiserates with the law student who is planning to sue the U for not providing adequate parking, accusing the U of breaking the contract implicit in purchasing a parking permit.
“They’re not saying they want diamond-paved stalls,” Hanna said. “I paid, and I expect a parking space when I show up.”