Be Careful Crossing the Street!

September 17, 2021

Faculty, Staff, and Students,

While our Memphis campus is lucky to be positioned in the heart of the Medical District, there are a few challenges that come with this urban location. One of which, is the fact that our campus is positioned across several busy streets, including Madison Avenue and Union Avenue, and crossing those streets can be risky if the pedestrians and drivers are not both paying attention.

This week, one of our students was hit by a car as they were crossing Madison Avenue in the crosswalk in front of the Pharmacy Building. The student was quickly transported to Regional One Health just a few feet away, and thankfully will be ok. However, this accident could have been much worse.

I plead to our faculty, staff, students, and patients to make sure you have activated the pedestrian crossing light system on either side of the crosswalk on Madison prior to crossing the street, and that you wait for the "walk" signal when crossing Union. Please continue to watch the traffic carefully when crossing these busy streets. Ideally, pedestrians should be able to easily walk across the street, however, distracted driving is prevalent, and we should exercise caution for the duration of a walk across any street.

The university will continue to position our Campus Police officers strategically across campus so that they may monitor and detour motorists from speeding on our campus. Likewise, I ask that our campus community please continue to be vigilant as we cross the streets as pedestrians, as well as when we drive down the same streets as motorists. Together, we can take precautions to ensure that our campus remains a safe, walkable place!

Kennard Brown, JD, PhD, MPA, FACHE
Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operations Officer