TORRINGTON – It’s nearing the dog days of summer and everyone is  anticipating the start of the new academic year at Eastern Wyoming College, leaving little of earth-shattering note to discuss during the Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday.

But President, Dr. Leslie Travers, did share one tidbit of good news with trustees: No longer is EWC the smallest institution in the Wyoming Community College system.

“According to the 2016-17 enrollment report from the Wyoming College Commission, EWC is no longer the smallest college in the state of Wyoming,” Travers said. “We are now number six and we’re hanging on by a hair.”

For the last academic year numbers are available for, EWC edged out Northwest College in Powell to move up in the rankings. 

According to data on the Community College Commission website, for the 2016-17 academic year, Northwestern reported 1,497 part-time and 822 full-time students, a total of 2,319. For the same period, EWC had 1,938 part-time students and 409 attending the college full time, a total of 2,347.

“I don’t remember a time we weren’t always the smallest,” Board President John Patrick said. “Northwest eliminated their journalism program in that big cut a few years ago. I think that hurt them.”

And EWC’s growth trend seems to be continuing for the coming academic season.

“We are currently up in enrollment,” Travers said. “For this coming year, I can’t tell you how much yet, but we’re up.”

With increasing numbers of students enrolled, both full- and part-time, making sure those students are safe on campus is becoming an increasing concern. Don Appiarius, the new vice president for student services for the college, told Trustees he would be hosting training today (Friday) for EWC staff and faculty, along with Torrington Police and administration from Torrington High School, on recognizing potential threats.

“It’s a state-of-the-art forensics assessment approach to both identifying and fashioning remediation to threats on campus,” Appiarius said. “While there is nothing any institution can do that can keep a campus fully safe, the goal is to make the campus safer before a threat escalates.”

Tying in with that, Travers reported on  discussions she’s had with Torrington’s new police chief, Timothy Hurd, during a recent walking tour of the campus.

“We’re going to have different services this year,” she said. “I think it’s going to be much better. We walked through the entire campus (so Hurd could) give us ideas, and to familiarize themselves.”

EWC will still have the services of Campus Resource Officer Beth Bryan, Travers said. But her time will be shared with Torrington High School during the coming year. In light of that, and changes made to TPD shift scheduling, there should be an increased police presence on the EWC campus in the future, she said.

TPD officers “have started 12-hour shifts,” Travers said. “All of their officers will be spending at least one hour on campus throughout the day, walking through buildings, making sure everything is kosher and according to Hoyle.”

She also told Trustees of a new cooperative agreement to provide free access for Torrington Police to the campus Fitness Center, further increasing the presence of law enforcement officers on campus. Trustee Mike Varney, also mayor of Torrington, said he initially had some reservations, particularly in regards splitting Bryan’s time between THS and EWC.

Hurd is “very strong about” community policing, Varney said. “My attitude now is let him try it.

“I know the high school can be pretty demanding, it’s kind of a different environment,” he said. “I just hope it will work out with the sharing.”

Having additional officers visiting the campus on more of a regular basis, through routine daily patrols and use of the Fitness Center, could mean more efficient responses in case of an emergency, Appiarius said.

“We need officers familiar with the campus and familiar with the players,” he said. “Beth’s (Bryan) presence is great, but that’s not always the person who’s going to respond.

“When (officers are) familiarized with the campus, they’re going to know the students, possibly who sticks out and doesn’t belong on campus, know the people who can say, ‘This is the situation,’” Appiarius said. “We will have far more officers who’ll respond any hour of the day, being familiar with the campus. That’s good from a threat-assessment standpoint.”