College of Pharmacy helping to mend ailing state economy
Article reprinted courtesy of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald - (hawaiitribune-herald.com)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 9:39 AM HST
by DAVID HAMMES
Looking for a prescription to help cure an ailing economy? Take a look
at the impact of educational programs on the local and state economy.
Here at UH-Hilo, the growing program in pharmacy helps us retain local
students and attract students from off island and out of state. Each
student admitted into the program has a choice of pharmacy programs to
attend. By selecting UH-Hilo, they become new consumers of our
educational products.
These students are demanders of our locally produced educational
services just as consumers of locally grown agricultural or other
products are demanders of our goods. If students go elsewhere our local
economy loses just as our local economy loses when demanders of products
buy from out-of-area producers.
The College of Pharmacy at UH-Hilo helps fill a state- and nationwide
need for pharmacists and, more expansively and possibly far-reaching, to
conduct research with local industry to investigate the
nutriceutical/medicinal properties of various plants and compounds.
Thus, the college provides two main economic injections into the local
economy: (1) new expenditures from students, staff and visitors to them,
none of whom would be here in the absence of the college; and, (2) new
expenditures into the productive stream generated from research funding,
again, which would be absent in the absence of the college.
Research funding (in all areas -- not just pharmacy) through national
and international agencies is highly competitive; it's like the BCS
football standings with a playoff. Research proposals are submitted and
then must survive in head-to-head competition with proposals from
hundreds of other programs from around the world. Grant recipients are
like winners of a BCS championship series game. They train long and hard
and produce the best results. That is where highly qualified and
active-researching faculty is crucial. Without their creativity and
drive, students will not come, courses won't be taught and research
dollars will not be attracted.
At this point, UH-Hilo's College of Pharmacy is in the mid-point of a
four-year arc to grow from zero to 360 students. So, let's consider its
economic impact now, as well as once it's reached its designed capacity.
This year, net injections into the local economy through the avenues
discussed above will be (approximately) $18 million. Each dollar paid
out in salaries and wages from state funds will attract $4.67 in new
dollars ... enough to pay for itself and have $3.67 left over!
Two years from now, as the college hits its capacity, those figures will
be $26 million in new expenditures annually and $4.58 brought in for
every $1 of wages and salaries.
Putting these numbers on a human scale, statewide there is an increase
in demand and spending due to the College of Pharmacy creating and now
sustaining approximately 400 new jobs, and in two years' time rising to
about 610 jobs. These are jobs spread throughout the state from faculty,
to bookstores, to suppliers, lunch counters, and so on.
The story does not end here.
Those of you familiar with economic impact studies know that the
benefits of new (or retained) expenditures have an enhanced effect in an
economy as the newly injected dollars get spent and re-spent, or
multiplied up, over time. Using multipliers derived from the state's
DBEDT, we calculate that the increase for final goods and services as a
result of the $18 million new expenditures will be $34 million this
year, and just over $50 million in two years' time.
That's $50 million that wouldn't be here without the College of Pharmacy
adding to the academic vitality of UH-Hilo and the state.
Now that's a big economic punch.