According to a recent article in the philly.com, Penn State University is the largest employer and the single largest contributor to the economy of the state of Pennsylvania. That is a tremendous amount and good news to say the least. Penn State generates more than 17 billion dollars annually and this figure includes $8.5 billion which the school brought to the economy in the fall of 2008.
All of this happened during the downturn in the economy and most of the money was generated via student spending, faculty living and accommodation costs, staff expenses and university visitors. The rest of the monies were brought in through tertiary services such as local businesses, research and alumni activities.
To be considered the largest contributor and the employers of Pennsylvania is a real feather in the cap of a university. Most of the time we hear nothing but woe due to rising tuition, faculty lay-offs and lack of social conscience in university towns. It is wonderful to hear of good news and a favorable outlook on behalf of students and their school.
Penn State generates nearly $647 million in the state’s tax revenue and is the state’s largest employer of over 44000 persons. In addition to state employee’s productivity, there is more than $700 million spent on research and student spending amounts to over $932 million in the state’s economy. That is a tremendous amount of money and the university should be proud of itself.
Most of us would be pleased to hear of other wonderful stories from other state universities with similar reports of income and tax generation. If all state universities could report such expenditures, instead of declining figures, then we would have something to celebrate.
So often is the case that we dwell on the bad news and don’t celebrate the good news.