ECU Report: ECU and Its Regional Influence
This article describes the influences that East Carolina University gives to the community. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: Jenkins, Leo. "ECU Report: ECU and Its Regional Influences," December 9, 1970, part of CH1050, Series 8, Publication file.
East Carolina University exerts many positive influences on the Greenville community and eastern North Carolina at large. Not only are these beneficial influences of an economic nature, but cultural and consultative as well. It is true that industry has moved into this area for economic advantage, but also because employees prefer a region offering intellectual stimulation and growth.
During the next decade, the total economic impact of ECU on this area will increase tremendously. A conservative estimate of this increased impact can be calculated by projecting ECU's currently budgeted expenditures to their estimated levels by 1980-1981.
Of course, this projection assumes that present relationships will endure in the future and that our expected enrollment will materialize. the projection does not include capital expenditures which may well be in the millions.
Given these assumptions, it appears that ECU will spend more than $225 million in this community during the next decade for faculty and staff salaries for other opeating expenses.
An additional $145 million will be spent by our students, which means that ECU will be contributing more than $370 million to the local economy.
We expect that by 1980-1981, ECU's enrollement will have increased by 4,600 students. According to the latest U.S. Chamber of Commerce figures, the purchasing power of 4,600 students is equivalent to that of 690 newly industrial jobs.
The addition of 4,600 students will create about 1,100 new postions in our faculty and staff. In effect, then, the growth of ECU over the next decade will have the same impact on this area as the creation of 1,790 new industrial jobs.
This projection has several important implications. The equivalents of 1,790 new industrial jobs will bring about an increase of more than 6,500 in Greenville's population. About 1,600 more school children will be added to the rolls of our city and county school systems.
The economy of this area will be directly bolstered by the addition of personal incomes totaling mote than $1,270,000 and by the increases in bank deposits of almost $4,280,000.
Businesses here will thrive as some 54 more retail establishments are added. retail sales per year will increase by approximately $5,925,000. Passenger car registrations will increase by more than 1,700.
The sizable economic contribution can be fairly accurately predicted, but there are countless other future benefits.
ECU will push ahead with its plans for a regional medical complex, which will bring relief to eastern North Carolina's critical shortage of physicians. The establishment of a medical education center here will help to attract top medical speacialists from all over.
Culturally, we foresee an even greater contribution to this area. ECU"S guest lectures, art exhibits, theatre productiopns, concerts -- in short, all the vital intellectual currents -- will continue to tie this agricultural area to the cultural trends of our time.
Our institution will also continue to serve this region's business. Programs such as the Executive Development Seminar will provide business leaders an opporturnity to enlarge their potentials through exposure to new ideas.
ECU will continue to emphasize its progressive programs of research, development and training. This will be necessary if our good faculty are to become better through the process of seeking new knowledge, new techniques and new methods of instruction. The local community will benefit from these activities because they will mean a better education for its youngpeople who attend college here.
These suggestions by no means exhaust the contributions of ECU, but merely indicate the diverse nature of its influence. And yet, there are certain areas in which encouragement and support by the community itself will aid in enlarging the advantages we offer.
During the next decade, the benefits that will result from the tangible and intangible influences of the University on the area are virtually incalculable. the obligations which each has to the other will be many, and, in most cases, well defined.
If present trends contiune and adequate support is rendered from the fedreal, state, and local agencies, the force for good by this institution upon this region is beyond our knowing.
