What is Happening Downtown?

At the end of the spring  2024 semester, the Downtown Design Team developed a comprehensive strategy to rejuvenate the Downtown Campus.

Immediate Priorities:

Any plan to revitalize the DTC must begin by addressing Parking, Awareness, Safety and Security (PASS). Students, faculty, and staff have consistently articulated that these issues hinder the growth of and engagement with the campus. We will immediately invest in these areas and continue to work on improvements through this summer and beyond.

• Parking: We are working on solutions to improve parking accessibility.
• Awareness: New signage and promotional efforts are underway to elevate the campus’s visibility within the Downtown community.
• Safety and Security: Our top priority is to create a consistent Campus Safety presence during the hours the campus is open. We will also identify other measures that help secure our buildings and improve the safety around campus.

Looking Ahead:

The Downtown Design Team identified several initiatives to not only build awareness, engagement and enrollment at DTC, but to also maximize the use of space at DTC. Each initiative works toward those goals and stems directly from the data collected from our students, faculty, staff and community partners.

• Future Academies & Concurrent Enrollment: Working with our K-12 partners, we envision creating dedicated concurrent enrollment programs housed at the DTC. This will optimize usage of our DTC facilities, increase engagement with the campus, and provide critical pathways to two-and-four-year programs.
• Non-credit & Short-term Programming: Today’s adult learners are seeking ways to enrich their lives and upscale their professional skills. Given the growing residential population and thriving commercial presence in Downtown COS, we will develop the DTC as the central hub for micro-credentialing, tech boot camps, professional coursework, enrichment seminars, etc.
• Engagement & Events: The Downtown community needs space to hold meetings, retreats and events. Downtown arts organizations need space for productions, exhibits and performances. The DTC has those spaces. A dedicated DTC event coordinator will enable us to maximize space utilization, increase the visibility of the DTC, and affirm PPSC as a vital part of Downtown.
• Student Support Services: Creating a vibrant DTC community will also require an investment in in-person student support services. While we cannot replicate all services available at other campuses, we recognize a lack of services reinforces a sense of isolation among DTC students, faculty and staff.

 

Over the summer, a steering committee (members listed below) was formed to guide this work and establish clear timelines and milestones for these initiatives. The Committee has formed sub-groups dedicated to each priority area and has already made progress toward several goals:

• Added external lighting to entrance of Studio West.
• Staffed and stationed a full-time police officer at DTC.
• Staffed security guard in evening shift.
• Developed new digital scan badges for DTC students (pilot program).
• Scheduled a Safety/Risk assessment for area around DTC.
• Spec’d and ordered DTC signage and wayfinding.
• Strengthened partnership with Antlers Parking Garage leading to parking garage improvements (new PPSC signage, brighter, cleaner,  security guard support &
  higher level parking in evenings) .
• Updated hardware on downtown access doors to accommodate new key card process.
• Joined two downtown partnership boards focused on safety and security.
• Posted and begun hiring process for Community Engagement position.
• Staffed full-time student support services at DTC.