Colleges and universities have always been major economic drives in their communities. However, in today's new knowledge and innovation-based economy, their role as lynchpins of creative community building via diversity, education, technology and quality of place has increased.
Morgantown has been gaining a great deal of national attention lately based on its nation-leading low unemployment rate. CNN did a story (somewhat misleading view of the town, in some ways) on the city, and now the Wall Street Journal has used it as an example of the college town trend towards success in a down economy. Money magazine even flagged Morgantown as a top location for meeting singles, a welcome change from West Virginia's usual selection as a top retirement location.
So what's going on in Morgantown and other large university towns? From the WSJ article:
Of the six metropolitan areas with unemployment below 4% as of January, three of them are considered college towns. One is Morgantown. The other two are Logan, Utah, home of Utah State University, and Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University. Both have just 3.8% unemployment, based on Labor Department figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
The pattern holds true for many other big college towns, such as Gainesville, Fla., Ann Arbor, Mich., Manhattan, Kan., and Boulder, Colo. In stark contrast, the unadjusted national unemployment rate is 8.5%.
What's driving the employment and growth in these college towns? Investments in the universities, of course, as well as growing status as regional healthcare hubs. The intersection of knowledge, research and healthcare seems to be the magic growth formula for many of these areas.
One question for West Virginia is why hasn't Huntington, with Marshall University, seen the same kind of growth? Perhaps an easy answer is that Marshall hasn't received the same kind of investment as WVU. In addition, WVU, as the state's largest university, has attracted more Federal research dollars.
However, Huntington is on the move. Dr. Stephen Kopp, Marshall's president, has the university focus on growth and innovation, especially on the research side. The Create Huntington volunteer team has embraced the "creative communities" concept more aggressively than most other cities, and they look to be on the cusp of breaking through with a number of major community improvements.
What about smaller college towns in West Virginia, such as Glenville, Philippi, Buckhannon and Athens? Could they benefit more from the presence of small colleges and universities?
Yes, although it may take more creative thinking and partnership. Small colleges and universities don't attract the major research dollars, but they can serve as creative catalysts in their region. Often it takes a very proactive, engaged president who is willing to partner with a community to map out areas of investment and growth. A good example is Dr. Peter Barr at Glenville State College, who has entered into a partnership with local developers to build much-needed new housing to keep college professors and staff living nearby.
Morgantown is on fire (not just with burning couches, but with economic growth). We encourage state leaders to think of how these sparks can spread across the state in unique ways via partnerships between all of our college and university towns and their local communities.
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