A study released by Tri-State University’s Ketner School of Business shows TSU students and employees contributing over $4.3 million to the economy of their surrounding community from March 2006-February 2007.

TSU Professor Julie Howenstine conducted the economic impact study, which included compiling information supplied by registered students and TSU employees in an electronic database; compiling data supplied by third-party workers involved in campus construction projects; and compiling figures from the campus building projects. The three combined compilations show total impact of over $39 million, according to the study.

Of the 349 electronic database respondents, 77 percent live in Indiana, 116 reside in Steuben County, and 27 percent live in Angola. They spent more than half (55 percent) of their paychecks in Steuben County. Expenditures totaled over $1 million. Extrapolating from the survey sample yields the $4.3 million annual impact.

Real estate expenditure in the form of rent and mortgages represented the highest individual disbursement at 24.7 percent. Combined housing expenditure, including real estate, taxes, insurance, and utilities, accounts for almost $500,000, or 41.9 percent of total money spent by the respondents, the study said.

Food, gas, and entertainment add up to 30 percent of total spending for the TSU respondents. Students and employees spent 5.7 percent of their money on clothing. TSU students surveyed spent $136,488 in the spring semester, January through March, and $93,287 in the fall semester, September through November.

The study also showed that during the study period, 200-250 third-party workers on campus made extrapolated expenditures of $268,412 within the Angola city limits. “Incremental people on campus provide the community other monies,” the report notes. “Much like tourists, they will always need food and fuel, and Angola has these additional goods and services to offer.”

The study of the TSU construction investment involved coordinating the data associated with the new buildings and improvements. An outline of expenditure was created and the amount of money infused into the community during the study’s duration evaluated to yield the $35 million investment in the University Center and Center for Online Technology, C.W. Sponsel Administration Center renovation, student villas and apartments, and technology upgrades completed or in progress during the study.

In her report, Howenstine called the economic impact study “a way to explore the amount of influence the institution has outside the confines of TSU-owned property.” TSU has conducted the survey in 1957, 1968, and 2001 to track the university’s economic influence on its surrounding community.

The majority of the latest study was prepared to determine the economic impact on the immediate geographic area of Angola, but it also shows a general picture of TSU’s impact on outlying communities, the study said.

“Thanks to today’s technology, the Internet, and advanced database systems, the current study has a more significant and accurate amount of information that helps report more insightful results,” Howenstine said in her report. “Both electronic and physical surveys were utilized, which created a more efficient way for the surveys to be distributed.”