Abstract
Costs are always relative and secondary to value.
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Institutions across the nation have provided out-of-state students in-state tuition as a means to increase revenue flow, increase enrollment and increase economic impact of a campus on the region where it is located. These are noble goals, but apart from giving away a university education, nothing will increase the movement of people across state borders to receive an education faster than an increase in the quality of teaching and scholarship.
In a study conducted at the end of the last century - sounds like a long time ago - it was found that the greatest single impact on local economies related to universities was not salaries, goods and services, construction spending, or sports events. According to Southeastern Louisiana university institutional researchers Beatrice Baldwin and others in Estimating a University’s Economic and Community Impact: Principles, Procedures, and Outcomes found that the most significant impact on the local economy was the spending of college students: Young people aloft on Nikes with North Face angel wings, and cash in their pockets had a greater impact on the economy of Southeastern Louisiana than University payroll, spending or construction.