MSU has a total impact on Michigan’s economy of about $4.7 billion and about $397 million in spending with local businesses, according to data from MI Spartan Impact — a site launched earlier this month showing the academic and economic impact of MSU on Michigan.

The University Research Corridor assisted independent researcher Anderson Economic Group, who annually prepares a report of the economic impacts of MSU, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University corroboratively. The University Research Corridor was able to extract the data for MSU’s economic impact on the state to use for the website.

Economic impact can be determined by things, such as the number of students and alumni from the region, where employees are located and where MSU purchases goods from, said Jeff Mason, executive director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor.

“What’s fascinating is that MSU has impacted literally every county and every region in our state,” Mason said. “You generally would think that most of that impact is really felt here in the Lansing (and) East Lansing economy.”

Although MSU pumps billions into the state economy, MSU only received approximately $298 million for the 2012-13 fiscal year from the higher education portion of the government’s budget.
Administrators hope lawmakers take note.

“As we get new legislators in place, we can educate them on how important MSU is in the economy,” said Monique Field, assistant vice president for strategic initiatives. “It was designed to tell our story.”

Region eight, which includes Barry, Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ingham, Ionia and Montcalm counties, is one of the regions with the biggest economic impact from MSU at about $2.47 billion and more than $193 million in local spending.

This region is closer to MSU’s campus, allowing them access to programs MSU offers, such as Spartan Innovations — a program providing financial support to turn MSU research technologies into Michigan businesses.

MSU is leaving a more than $1 billion economic footprint on the Detroit metro area, the source of thousands of MSU students. About 4,622 hailed from Wayne County alone this semester, according to the Office of the Registrar.

Broad College of Business students are working through the Demmer Center for Business Transformation to streamline operations in Detroit’s Lear Corporation, which in turn helps work conditions on the assembly line at their manufacturing plant in Roscommon, Mich.

The Made in Michigan initiative, a collaboration between the MSU Product Center and Meijer, brings food from local businesses such as Herkner Foods located in Traverse City, Mich., Sansoneti Foods in Holly, Mich., and Teta Foods from Clinton, Mich., to Meijers in Detroit and other urban areas. He estimated the impact of the program at $900,000.

“Why can I walk into a Meijer aisle and buy things from all over the world but not products made in Michigan?” said Matthew Birbeck, project manager at the MSU Product Center. “I think (this program) will help small businesses grow and help small businesses capture a bigger piece of the market place.”

Farther from campus in more rural areas of the state, the economic effects dwindle.
The Alger, Chippewa, Delta, Luce, Mackinac and Schoolcraft region sees the least amount of money coming from MSU at about $13 million, with $387,456 in spending on local businesses.

Despite the variance in support based on region, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said MI Spartan Impact shows the reach of MSU on Michigan’s economy.

“Michigan State has for a long time been a partner in economic development,” Simon said in a statement. “We’re very involved locally … with technology transfer and start-up support offices close to the East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, for example. We work across Michigan, too, in a variety of ways to help position the state to compete in the global knowledge economy and improve the quality of life.”

MSU seeks to attract students from across state, average financial aid $6,200

During adolescence, affording college was merely a dream for Brittany Massa.

“Honestly, for a while (when) I was in high school, I didn’t think I would be able to go to college,” she said, adding both her parents were unemployed when she first came to MSU.
Fortunately for Massa, this burden turned into a blessing.

After filling out her Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, the social work junior from Farmington, Mich., has received about $20,000 to $30,000 in financial aid per year in federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans, scholarships and work study, she said.

For many students at MSU, financial aid and its distribution is key to affording an education.
According to the 2012 Michigan Spartan Impact Report, a review of MSU’s impact on Michigan including enrollment numbers of in-state students and financial aid distribution by region, Massa receives more financial aid than most in-state students at MSU.

While enrollment numbers from fall 2011 — the semester of registration cited in the study — vary among MSU reports, the average amount of financial aid allocated to a Michigan student was more than $6,200 per student in the 2011-12 academic year, according to a state-wide analysis of the impact report. Students from Oakland, such as Massa, Wayne and Macomb counties, received even less, at $6,061 in aid on average. Although the Office of Admissions aims to reach out to students from regions across the state to increase geographic diversity at MSU, Val Meyers, associate director of the Office of Financial Aid, said aid is dispersed on a student need-basis via FAFSA, and aid is unrelated to a student’s hometown.

She said the office analyzes need based on the size of a student’s household, how many people in the family are attending college and parents’ incomes and assets, among other factors.

Athletic training sophomore Amanda Hohly-Seng, who is from Copper City, Mich., in Houghton County — the report’s first region — said she receives about $10,000 in financial aid per year in federal loans and grants. She said she is paying for all of her own schooling.

Being from Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula, Hohly-Seng said there are many students from her region receiving aid.

“There isn’t a whole lot of old money or hidden money in the U.P. There are a lot of working families at minimum-wage jobs, or they have their own business that only flourishes during the summer, during the busy season,” she said, adding there also are many very large families in the Upper Peninsula. Hohly-Seng has four younger siblings.

John Ambrose, the associate director for inclusion and strategic planning at the Office of Admissions, said his office reaches out to students at college fairs and visits each Michigan high school at least once every two years. There are students from every county in Michigan at MSU, he said.

Counselors from the Office of Admissions will visit schools and inform students of MSU’s academic opportunities and financial options, he said.

Despite the declining Michigan high school graduation rates, which lead to a smaller pool of potential MSU students to draw from, Ambrose said his office still is committed to recruiting in-state students.

“Regardless of what the graduation rates show … we are going to continue (our efforts),” he said. “We hope that they continue to choose MSU as a viable option.”