UTA's footprint growing economically as well as physically

How do you demonstrate to your boss that you're worth your keep?

If you're a state university that answers to the public by way of the Legislature, you ask an economist to quantify your value.

When Waco-based Ray Perryman crunched the numbers about the University of Texas at Arlington, he estimated the school's impact from ongoing operations as $1 billion in output and 14,685 permanent jobs in North Central Texas, even higher when projected statewide.

Total external benefits, which includes the effects of spin-off research and graduates employed in North Texas (almost 69 percent of UTA alums live in North Texas), came to a $12.8 billion annual impact and 122,295 jobs in the region and $13.6 billion statewide, the report said.

Recent construction projects were credited with almost $503 million worth of economic impact and 5,861 person-years of employment in the region, $539 million and 6,268 person-years statewide. Those include the $78 million College Park Center arena and adjacent $82 million College Park development's housing, shops and 1,800-space parking garage.

Perryman's study, which UTA officials unveiled Friday with understandable enthusiasm, attached numbers to the very tangible evidence of a campus building boom and to efforts in building enrollment, boosting research spending and raising the school's visibility.

The university operates on a $585 million budget, 21.5 percent of which comes from the state, 47.4 percent from student tuition/fees and 31.1 percent from contracts/grants.

With enrollment over 35,000 in more than 180 programs, UTA has systematically been expanding its footprint in Arlington and working to compete for a pool of money available to Tier 1 research universities. The campus employs 3,900 people.

The economic study, for which UTA paid $75,000, measured other jobs sustained through such things as the university's need for suppliers and services, student spending, campus visitors and other opportunities tied to College Park.

President James Spaniolo, who has announced he'll step down when his successor is named, has been untiring in telling UTA's success story to all who'll listen. This study can help tight-fisted legislators see a return on higher education investment.

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