CHEN's economic impact
Archived article from Jan 25, 2002
By Helen Paxton
The four public institutions of higher learning in Newark, which together spend several billion dollars educating students, continue to fuel the city's renaissance, according to the Economic Impact of Higher Education report issued by the Council for Higher Education in Newark (CHEN).
If the four schools that constitute CHEN — Essex County College, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers–Newark and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey — were viewed as a business, they would be a $1.1 billion corporation with more than 11,800 employees and $480 million in payrolls, the report says.
The schools propel the city's resurgence in many ways. According to the report, they not only educate some 26,000 students, but they also employ thousands of local residents. In Essex County, they employ more people than the chemical, construction and legal industries; in Newark alone, they account for 9 percent of the city's jobs.
The report notes that the $1.1 billion spent by the schools on labor, materials and services has a ripple effect that benefits nearly every aspect of the state's economy. Last year, for instance, the schools generated more than $2.6 billion in spending and 24,558 jobs. Most of those jobs — 10,304 of them — were located in Newark.
Moreover, between 1990 and 2000, CHEN capital investment generated a total of $923 million in spending and 7,843 construction-related jobs throughout the state. Investments planned for 2001 through 2005 are expected to generate $918 million in spending and 7,801 jobs in New Jersey.
The report also points out that the four schools improve the quality of life in Newark, turning it into a vibrant college town. Thousands of students graduate each year from the colleges, joining the workforce as doctors, dentists, engineers, architects, computer scientists, lawyers, teachers and executives.
CHEN's most ambitious project is the development of University Heights' Science Park. When the project is completed, the facility will offer a million square feet of building space for research, technology, business start-ups and offices. Science Park will also include housing units, a child-care center, retail space and Science High School.
The study was funded by CHEN to evaluate the collective economic impact of the four Newark institutions of higher education and to describe their contributions to the local economy of Newark and its surrounding area. Richard W. Roper, president of the Roper Group, prepared the study. Amos Ilan, principal of A. Ilan Consulting, provided assistance and conducted the economic impact assessment of CHEN's spending pattern.
A full copy of the report is available at www.CHEN-NJ.org.
|
