Planning group visits UI

Vitruvian Planning consultants visited the UI campus to assess campus safety, collect feedback and suggest improvements

Eimile Darney | Argonaut Don Kostelec delivers a presentation on campus safety Wednesday afternoon.

Two consultants from Vitruvian Planning, a Boise, Idaho, based consulting firm, made a follow-up visit to the University of Idaho campus this week.

Chris Danley and Don Kostelec first visited the UI campus in October and conducted what they refered to as walk audits with the intention of assessing the university in order to provide recommendations to increase campus safety. Kostelec and Danley noted several times throughout their two-day trip to the university that their job was to “turn a mirror” on the university and its campus safety efforts.

During walk audits, the consultants took several students around campus during the day and night and observed the environment. Then, they noted areas which they see as potential safety risks based on various criteria. Danley said the main goal of walk audits is to assess how walking on campus can be made safer through the eyes of pedestrians, whether they are able-bodied or not.

Danley and Kostelec discussed the outcomes of two listening sessions they held with the campus community and information on evaluations of the campus on Wednesday. The pair of consultants said there are aspects of campus which can be improved to improve campus safety, like lighting.

“I think the main thing is there could be a short-term focus on upgrading the existing lighting, either replacing bulbs that are out or changing some of the stuff to more modernization. That I think can be a short-term item,” Kostelec said.

The pair also travelled to Washington State University this week in order to learn from preventative measures which are working well for UI’s neighboring university. During the student listening session, several of the student attendees applauded WSU’s use of lighting on their campus.

The consultants also looked at relationships between security, facilities, community and the Moscow Police Department. They also examined areas off campus which Danley said are still relevant and important because of the large numbers of students who live in those areas.

The first listening session the consultants held included leaders from groups and departments around campus including Vandal Health Education and the Women’s Center.

Emilie McLarnan, the coordinator of Violence Prevention Programs at UI, played an active role in facilitating the visit and the conversation during the first listening session. McLarnan spoke about the importance of communicating with students.

“We had great input from the students who participated in the safety walks in October. Hopefully we can connect with students when these opportunities for involvement arise so they can engage. And hopefully, students can bring concerns forward to help initiate attention to their concerns,” McLarnen said.

Consultants asked the students where problem areas regarding safety exist on campus and they discussed possible solutions with students.

Recurring topics during both listening sessions included lighting on campus and the removal of ice on sidewalks during the winter months.

Kostelec said that feedback from the university has been positive so far, and the university administration and student organizations have been receptive to the feedback they have provided.

“Our analogy we use is we’ve turned a mirror on (university campus safety) and because of that we’re in some cases being brutally honest,” Kostelec said, “But I think (the university’s) response to looking at this built environment piece which is very different than what they’re usually tasked with has been really good — so we’ve received a lot of kudos both from administration, student organizations and the students that we’ve involved in the effort.”

Elizabeth Marshall can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EJMarshall_

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