During the 2024 legislative session, several bills were introduced that called Mississippi University for Women’s future into question.
Since the session ended in April, the university has been preparing a plan to bolster support across the state ahead of the next session in January. The university distributed talking points about The W’s value during a Legislative Engagement and Advocacy Partnership rally last week.
One point consistently used in support of The W is its economic contributions in the region and the state. Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston told supporters at the rally that losing The W would be a loss of economic activity for the county. He also mentioned the university’s impact on local workforce development, specifically with nursing.
“We hear a lot from the state level about workforce development,” Hairston said during the rally last week. “If you limit access to education by shutting down The W, it will hurt the workforce, especially in our hospital.”
What economic impact does The W have on the Golden Triangle? What about the state? What does workforce development look like at The W, and how does it help the state?
Economic impact on the state level
The university released a study last year that considered The W’s economic impact during Fiscal Year 2022. The analysis used employee, student and financial data to convey MUW’s value through its impact on the economy.
The study noted multiple ways The W promotes economic growth in the state, including its own direct expenditures and the expenditures of visitors, students and state business that interact with the university.
During FY 2022, the university employed 417 faculty and staff – 88% of whom lived in Mississippi – for a total payroll of $28.2 million that year. The university also spent $22.7 million on day-to-day expenses having to do with facilities, supplies and professional services.
Combining the university’s payroll for FY 2022, the economic activity generated by the university’s spending and a downward adjustment to account for state funding, the study estimates MUW added $27.6 million in income to the state that year.
The study also considered the impact of expenditures on construction, visitor and student spending, volunteerism connected to the university and alumni. Adding all of it together, the study estimates the university added $215.3 million to the Mississippi economy that fiscal year.
Economic activity in the Golden Triangle
For the university’s economic impact in the Golden Triangle, the study looked at MUW’s expenditures and money spent by visitors, students and regional businesses that may not have been spent if The W didn’t exist.
Hairston said the university’s presence in Lowndes County is a big contributor to local businesses.
“I see the economic impact that it has year-in and year-out,” Hairston told The Dispatch on Friday. “It generates economic activity. You think about the sports programs that go on every weekend. You think about all of the various activities for parents and grandparents who come to town. I would say that the restaurants and hotels, all of that benefits.”
According to the study, off-campus spending by out-of-region visitors generated a net impact of $1.1 million in added income to the regional economy.
Students living and studying at the university also contribute to the local economy. About 67% of MUW’s degree-seeking students in FY 2022 were from somewhere outside of the Golden Triangle. While attending the university, students generated $2.2 million in added income for the economy that year, the study said.
MUW’s proximity to downtown is an added benefit for Columbus especially, Hairston said.
“When (the students are) here, they spend money inside of Columbus city limits and generate sales tax revenue for the city,” he said. “That doesn’t include what we see from the payroll that’s being generated to the people who live here and work here for economic activity locally.”
The study also notes that The W is a primary source of higher education for Golden Triangle students, and thus, a supplier of workers to regional industries.
This, Hairston said, makes MUW a major asset for the local health care industry.
“Our local hospital really benefits from having those nurses trained here locally,” he said. “The impact of that is pretty good from a health care standpoint, having that sort of activity going on at our local hospital.”
Workforce development
The Vandergriff College of Nursing and Health Science is MUW’s largest degree-granting college. The fall 2023 semester started with 950 students enrolled in the college – more than a third of the university’s total enrollment.
Brandy Larmon, dean of the college, said the university’s two undergraduate pre-licensure programs – associate nursing and baccalaureate nursing – graduates between 100 and 120 nurses each May.
Of the students who graduated this May and received their license, Larmon said 100% have already found jobs, and 83% of those students are staying in Mississippi to do the jobs.
“To have 100% job placement just within three to four months is pretty huge,” she said. “But that happens pretty regularly. Both of our undergraduate programs have had 100% job placement for several years.”
Larmon said students in the college’s graduate nurse practitioner program are also staying in Mississippi. Many of them are going to rural areas that need the help, she said.
“Almost all of them are going back to rural areas, so I would say from the perspective of health care, we are also putting nurse practitioners in the places where they can be the most successful and beneficial,” she said.
The nurses graduating at The W are also helping reduce the state’s nursing shortage, Larmon said. The field is projected to need more than 275,000 additional nurses between 2020 and 2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We help Mississippi’s shortage of nurses and provide a huge return on investment from the student’s perspective,” she said. “We have a large majority of our students that are being retained, that are graduating, that are passing boards and getting jobs.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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