MEDICAL STUDENT GOVERNMENT @ VCU
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Medical
College of
​Virginia

MCV: Overview

     Today, MCV consists of the schools of Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Public Health and Pharmacy. More than 3,000 students, interns, residents, and postdoctoral fellows receive education in the health sciences on the MCV campus. Nearly 1,000 full-time and part-time faculty are involved with the medical school alone! It has been consistently ranked the number 1 hospital in Virginia
     By the way, since this is an unofficial publication, you will see that this continues to refer to the school as "MCV" as most people still (unofficially) do. Any official communications from this school will refer to this school as VCU School of Medicine, as will all other schools on the MCV Campus (i.e., dentistry, pharmacy, allied health professions, nursing and public health). However, respected hospitals and medical organizations still recognize the MCV moniker.

History

     The Medical College of Virginia (MCV) was founded on December 1, 1837, when the president and trustees of Hampden-Sydney College created a medical department in Richmond. In 1854, this medical department became the Medical College of Virginia, an independent institution.

     The college's first permanent building, the Egyptian Building, opened in 1844 for medical instruction and hailed to this day as one of the finest examples of neo-Egyptian architecture in the United States! In 1860, when the Commonwealth of Virginia appropriated $30,000 for MCV’s first hospital (Old Dominion Hospital, since decommissioned), MCV became a state-supported institution. In 1893, a second medical college, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, was established just two blocks from the Egyptian Building. In 1894, its name was changed to the University College of Medicine. This college and MCV were consolidated in 1913. MCV continued to operate as a state-supported, free-standing medical school during the first part of the 20th century. However, concerns remained in the Virginia General Assembly about whether free-standing medical schools would continue to receive accreditation by the precursor to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). To address those concerns, the Medical College of Virginia was merged with the Richmond Professional Institute to establish Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 1968.

     In the years immediately following the merger, MCV continued to operate as an autonomous unit of VCU, retaining the medical college's colors (green and white), mascot (the Medicos) and its name (established 

by the General Assembly in the Code of Virginia as "the Medical College of ​Virginia, the Health Sciences Division of Virginia Commonwealth University"). As time progressed, however, VCU officials expressed growing frustration during attempts to unite MCV with VCU's other academic operations as one university, both in spirit and in name; university administrators thus sought to re- brand MCV via strengthening of its association with VCU. These efforts have faced considerable resistance from faculty, staff and alumni at MCV in the years following VCU's establishment. Trying to seek a compromise, the MCV moniker was changed to reflect its association with VCU; through the 1980s, the school used various names, the most popular being "Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia." In the mid-1990s, however, a prominent USA Today article highlighting research conducted by MCV researchers referred to the institution as "Virginia Medical College, the medical branch of the University of Virginia." Incensed, university officials moved to address the name debate, removing any MCV references and renaming the school as the VCU School of Medicine.

     In recent years, the administration has promoted the idea that we attend the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine on the MCV Campus, in the tradition of the Medical College of Virginia. Try putting that on a T-shirt. In 2012 the logo for the entire university was changed to contain an image of the Egyptian Building, reflecting the importance of the medical school and hospital to the university!

You can find more details about the history of MCV here.

Medical Education Buildings

Picture
McGlothlin Medical Education Center 
1201 E. Marshall St.
Picture
Hunton Student Center
​
1110 E. Broad St.
Picture
Sanger Hall
​
​
1101 E. Marshall St.
Picture
Tompkins McCaw Library
​
509 N. 12th St.
Picture
KMSB
​
(Kontos Medical Sciences Building)
​1217 E. Marshall St.
Picture
Larrick Student Center 
900 Turpin St.
Picture
Egyptian Building 
​
​1223 E. Marshall St.
Buildings belonging to the School of Dentistry and various buildings on the medical campus are occasionally used for exams or workshops.

For interactive and pdf copies of maps for the VCU campuses, click 
here.

Amenities

​Refrigerators
  • MMEC - 5th & 7th floor 
  • Sanger Hall - 8th Floor Lounge (Secured by door code. Ask an M2 or check with the Curriculum Office) 
  • Hospital - Student on-call room

​Microwaves
  • MMEC - 5th & 7th floor 
  • Hunton Hall - 1st Floor 
  • KMSB - 1st Floor vending machine room 
  • Sanger Hall - 1st Floor vending machine room; 8th Floor Lounge (Secured by door code. Ask an M2 or check with the Curriculum Office)
  • Tompkins-McCaw - 1st Floor​
Coffee Machines
  • MMEC - 5th & 7th floor (bring your own K cups) 
  • Smith Building - 1st Floor Lounge 
  • West Hospital- 14th Floor - Department of Family Medicine 
  • Hospital - Student on-call room (bring your own K cups)
​​
Printers
  • MMEC - 6th & 8th floors 
  • Hospital- Student on-call room 
  • Sanger Hall - 8th Floor Lab 
  • Egyptian Building - 3rd Floor 
  • Hunton Hall - 2nd Floor Lab 
  • Tompkins-McCaw - 1st Floor​
Vending Machines
  • MMEC - 6th & 8th floor 
  • KMSB - 1st Floor 
  • Egyptian Building - 1st Floor 
  • Sanger Hall - 1st Floor 
  • Hunton Hall - 1st Floor Lounge 
  • Hospital - 1st Floor of Main Hospital 
  • Tompkins-McCaw - 1st Floor​

Trivia

Sports
  • MCV has a considerable legacy of athletic success; in the early 20th century, MCV fielded football teams against such schools as Wake Forest, William and Mary, Virginia Tech, Hampden- Sydney, Randolph Macon College and the universities of North Carolina and Virginia. While the "Medicos" have long since retired, the tradition continues via MCV's performance in MCV Campus and university-wide intramural sports, with medical student teams regularly bringing "home" championships in indoor soccer, flag football, basketball, tennis and volleyball. The competition can get pretty spirited, particularly with the large number of former collegiate athletes who come to MCV, so if you're a fan of sports, IM competition is definitely not to be missed.

Junto 
  • MCV's own secret society, the MCV Junto is comprised of students, faculty, administrators and alumni members who seek to preserve and promote the legacy and mission of the Medical College of Virginia.  No one knows exactly who the members are, but their presence is palpable - just look for their telltale skull and crossbones symbol to explain how a sign was erected seemingly spontaneously or from where certain anatomy study materials originated!


Colors 
  • MCV's traditional colors are forest green and white, while VCU's official colors are gold and black. Take your pick and roll from there.

Statue of Hippocrates 
  • Presented to the Medical College of Virginia by Virginians of Greek Ancestry, the bust of Hippocrates (the Grecian "father of medicine") stands in the Medical Sciences Building Plaza between the Egyptian Building and Medical Sciences Building. Rubbing the statue's head prior to an exam is supposed to bring good fortune to the stressed-out MCV student, but no verifiable evidence of that association currently exists. By all means, however, rub the bust, if you so desire!

Class Gifts 
  • With over 175 years of history—and graduating classes—it stands that MCV has a strong base of alumni who return to campus regularly, often to bestow the school with various gifts. This tradition begins at graduation, when each class donates a class gift to the school to stand as a symbol of the legacy left by its members. Some of these gifts are more prominent than others (the seal gifted by the Class of 2007 in the MSB Plaza being a prime example), but they exist all over campus. Take a study break and try to see how many you can uncover; you might be inspired to help select your own class's gift!
Copyright VCU MSG © 2020
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