The Office of Government and Community Relations, in conjunction with the Troy Business Association, recently held two focus groups to determine students’ wants and needs for a downtown business district in Troy. The Economic Development Subcommittee of the Neighborhood Task Force consisting of officials from the Institute, city representatives, neighborhood residents, and local merchants was primarily responsible for the focus groups.
“The Rensselaer Plan and Dr. Jackson have made it clear that the vitality of the Institute is tied to the vitality of the community,” said Allison Newman, Director of Community Relations. “We’re really working together to achieve common goals.”
The focus groups grew out of a survey by the TBA that focused on RPI faculty, sparking interest from community merchants, said Newman. John Hedley, who recently purchased the Market Block, a business district on River Street near the Uncle Sam Atrium, approached Newman to coordinate an effort to find out what RPI students need and would like to see on his property and Troy in general. Paula Grimm, a former advertising executive with experience in focus groups, who moved to Troy from Los Angeles, was recruited to help plan the effort.
The focus groups were advertised on RPInfo with a survey that collected demographic information about the volunteers so the planners could have a better idea of who was attending their sessions.
“We were very lucky to have attracted a very diverse and interesting group,” said Newman. “We really wanted to get as many different perspectives as possible, and we had a great mix of males and females and class years.”
One of the major goals of these focus groups was to determine what the student body’s perception of Troy is. At each of the two sessions, the volunteers were split into two groups and given magazines and cardboard. One group was asked to make a collage of what they thought Troy was like, while the other was asked to make one showing what they would like Troy to be. The coordinators were pleasantly surprised, Newman said, to find that students did not want the downtown area to become a mall.
“The students had a level of appreciation for the architecture and culture of the area,” she said. Students present expressed that while malls are preferable for some shopping, they are definitely not what is wanted in a downtown area.
While other focus groups are necessary before the task force can put together definitive data, Newman said that these two sessions were helpful in “identifying some real opportunities for change,” and hopes that the eventual outcome of the program will be information that merchants can use in the long run for their businesses.
While many students describe the apathy of the school and a lack of interest in Troy, Newman feels that this is not representative of the whole. “That students would volunteer two and half hours towards this effort is indicative of a level of optimism,” she said.
More focus groups for students are planned for next fall, as well as some for faculty and staff this summer.
