According to the economic impact study released on Feb. 16, IU Southeast contributed $124.4 million to the local economy, including thousands of jobs.
“The $124 million economic impact figure represents the direct spending of IUS in Indiana,” Mark Land, associate vice president for University Communications at Indiana University, said. “It has two components — direct spending and indirect or induced spending.Direct spending is for employee salaries and spending with vendors and companies in Indiana that serve the campus in some way. It also includes spending by students and visitors to the campus.”
The entire Indiana University system, including all eight regional campuses and IU Health, impacted the economy with an $11.5 billion in the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Indiana University also provided nearly 100,000 jobs for Hoosiers.
The study was conducted by Tripp Umbach, a leading economic impact firm, which has conducted many similar studies on other campuses nationwide.
The firm examined the indirect and direct spending of the university to generate the impact of Indiana University to the state of Indiana.
The cost of the study totaled $75,000.
The study broke down the spending of the college in terms of direct and indirect spending.
Of the $124.4 million that IU Southeast generated, $60.5 million had a direct impact and $63.9 million had an indirect impact — which included activity of those who do business with the university.
“This is just money spent in Indiana,” Land said. “For example, the economic activity generated by a firm in Louisville that does work for IUS would not be counted, so the total economic impact reported is actually understated somewhat.”
According to the study, Indiana University combined with IU Health is Indiana’s largest employer, contributing 4.5 percent of the state’s total economy.
Closer to home, IU Southeast is responsible for 14 percent of the total employment, with 1,476 jobs – 735 of those were direct jobs and 741 were indirect or induced jobs.
Chancellor Sandra Patterson-Randles and Dana Wavle, vice chancellor of Administrative Affairs and Finance, were both unavailable for comment. However, Erica Walsh, public relations specialist, commented on their behalf.
“[The direct jobs] include all of our faculty, our staff, and anyone who works at the university,” Walsh said. “The indirect jobs are like the contractor who has worked on our housing and who will be working on the new building, so we also impact the community with those kinds of jobs.”
Looking ahead for the next fiscal year, IU Southeast plans to have a bigger impact on the local economy through the expansion of dorms on campus. When the five current lodges were built in 2007, the work was completed through all local vendors and administration plans to continue working with local companies for the addition of the new lodge.
“That is a big project,” Walsh said. “It has both a direct and indirect job because we will have people [at the university] working on it and also have contractors from the local area. The last time we did the lodges and we had a groundbreaking, we used all local contractors for that.”
IU Southeast contributes $6.5 million per year in state and local taxes alone to the Indiana economy.
IU Southeast also contributes to the local economy through volunteer time and charitable donations.
The study found faculty and staff contribute $1.7 million in charitable donations and $6.1 million in volunteer time to the community.
“Our students participate in the community in a lot of ways,” Walsh said. “They do a lot of work with various organizations, they hold events on campus and they go out in the community and work with various groups, so really that is a main impact that [students] have.”
In comparison to the other eight regional campuses, IU Southeast ranks fifth in economic contributions to Indiana.
IU Bloomington contributes $2.3 billion, followed by IUPUI with $2 billion. Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne adds $164 million and IU South Bend, with $141.8 million.
The entire IU system impacts the state with $11.5 billion in indirect and direct spending a year.
“Not only are we having an impact on the community economically, but we are also having an impact on the community by volunteer hours and by providing educated students who work in the workforce,” Walsh said.
Studies for relative universities in the state have not yet been conducted, but Land said Indiana University may be at the top of contributions to the Indiana’s economy.
“We don’t have comparative data for other universities in the state, but IU is by far the largest university in Indiana, with about 110,000 students,” Land said.
Although the study did not include the impact alumni have had on the economy, Walsh said the university will continue to contribute money to the community through its graduates.
“We’re just going to continue what we are doing in turning out great leaders for the community working here and getting jobs here,” Walsh said. “The more graduates and alumni that we have out there in the community who stay here — and a large portion of them do stay here — nearly 90 percent of [IUS] alumni work in the state of Indiana or the greater Louisville metropolitan region. They are staying here, they are having an impact once they graduate, and they are using the education we provide for them to have an impact on the community.”
By HANNA WOODS
Staff
hrwoods@umail.iu.edu
