Representatives from the city, county and three institutions of higher education are conducting a study to see how the educational communities and Laramie community at large view the relationship between each other.
The Laramie Town-Gown Association released four surveys, one for University of Wyoming members, Laramie County Community College and WyoTech communities and the last for Laramie residents.
Laramie Police Department Chief Dale Stalder said it is important to know what people think about the community in general or organizations such as UW or LCCC to see if there is anything people feel like they could do to better relationships.
“In order to gauge the environment, (we need to know what) the overall relationship between the community and the higher education institutions is,” Stalder said. “This assessment is a good starting point to say, based on the assessment, we could find there is some lack, cooperation or input or there is a lot of trust or input between the higher education communities and the community at large.”
The assessment was developed by the International Town-Gown Association, but modified by the Laramie Town-Gown Association to better fit the people of Laramie, he said.
“The International Town-Gown Association built this assessment tool, and it has been used all over the country, in university towns where you have higher education and the community,” Stalder said. “About six or eight months ago, we made a decision in the Laramie Town-Gown Association to purchase the assessment tool, customize it to our environment and that resulted in putting that assessment tool out.”
The surveys ask members of the communities about topics such as student partying or involvement around the community that could affect the relationship between organizations, he said.
“The assessment asks about things such as how we cooperatively deal with issues related to alcohol or access to a business,” Stalder said. “(An example of this is) maybe university students are not aware of a certain areas of businesses within the community. We could make them more aware of that, which would create a better business environment.”
He said with the information gathered, the LPD would use the information to see if there is a need to provide more opportunities for the police department to interact with the public in positive ways or if there is anything they should change.
“When we receive the results from the assessment, we will have a better idea of how to move forward with improving or maintaining those relationships,” Stalder said.
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