By Kenneth Artz, Athens Daily Review

Trinity Valley Community College creates a significant positive impact upon the business community, students, taxpayers, and society, adding $184.5M in income to the TVCC service area, according to a recent study.

In “The Economic Value of Trinity Valley Community College,” Lightcast examined FY 2022-23, and concluded that the alumni impact (increased earnings of TVCC alumni and the businesses they work for); operations spending impact (impact of payroll and other spending); and student spending impact (impact of the daily spending of TVCC students attracted to or retained in the region), amounted to $184.5M in added income to the TVCC service area, or 3,502 jobs supported.

TVCC President Dr. Jason Morrison was kind enough to discuss his impressions of Lightcast’s economic impact study with The Athens Daily Review.

Why did you have an economic impact study performed on TVCC?

JS: Lightcast is an organization that commonly serves educational institutions and other entities like municipalities by doing economic impact studies. I’m familiar with them and felt like it’s probably been some time since we’ve done one here at TVCC. Since we’re kind of rebranding the system, I thought a good way to do that would be to have a really intentful discussion about the impact the college has on its five-county service area.

Did Lightcast approach you or did you approach them?

JS: I reached out to them and asked them to examine all the campuses in the TVCC system as one unit. We have campuses in Terrell, Kaufman, Palestine, and here in Athens, but we really are a system, but with multiple campuses.

One of the first items that got my attention in the study’s Fact Sheet is the “alumni impact.” Can you talk about what that is and what it means?

JS: This is people who’ve been impacted by Trinity Valley for their educational needs and their earning potential once they leave Trinity Valley. The people that we produce as students – this is what they’re doing out there in our area, and we only focus on our area. We have students who go all over the place, but as far as our service area, these students who go to school here, they have a $140M impact. They’re buying cars, houses, and they’re contributing to society. The study found the overall impact TVCC has on the lives of people, and then in return, what do we, as a community receive? During this time period, the study says that between 2022-23, its a $140M impact in one year. So it shows the purpose and role that education serves in shaping people’s lives and advancing our community.

How did the authors perform their study?

JS: Lightcast goes back in time and we worked with them to do the study. They went back to 2022-23 to do the study – that’s year that they compile all the data, all the people in the workforce, etc., so they chose the time frame. Now if we were to do one five year’s from now, it would probably be 2026-27, so then they’d go back and give you a snapshot in time and it kind of let’s you know where you sat. Obviously, with some of the growth we’re seeing here, we can only assume that we’re having actually even more of an impact now.

Did Lightcast determine the return on investment for how much each dollar sent to the TVCC system becomes once funneled back into the economy?

JS: For taxpayers, every dollar spent, there is a $2.10 return; and for students, every dollar spent, there’s a $5.80 return.

What is the current enrollment in the TVCC system?

JS: We just released the count at a recent board meeting and we’re saying that the headcount is 6,261, and FTE, or full-time equivalency, is 4,641. That was about nine percent growth on the headcount; and about 11 percent growth on our FTE.

So your system is growing?

JS: Well, in the last few years, yes. Since Covid, we had been on a decline, but this year was really one to celebrate because of all the hard work in our enrollment office, and from people like our recruiters, advisors, and marketing department, who’ve worked hard to get the TVCC brand out there and to celebrate that this type of increase shows that we know what we’re doing and that this is working.

What was the most interesting thing you gleaned from the study?

JS: Well, first is the overall impact we’ve had for an institution of our size – we’re a small to medium-sized institution in a more rural based area. I thought that was tremendous.

Also, the number of jobs we support in a given year is impressive.

But one thing that really stuck out to me is when we look at our student spending power. What Lightcast did was calculate the number of students we bring in from outside, which is something like 20 percent or around 500 who came here from outside our service area, and they had a $4.7M impact.

That means the money they spend out in the community, and the jobs they’re influencing and maintaining because they’re here so businesses will have to hire more people, in the end it’s a $4.7M impact. So when we fill up these dorms, we’re having a tremendous impact – especially on the Athens economy.

Why is this economic impact study important?

JS: For me, it gives that original snapshot of where we’re at, and we can use it as a baseline for where we grow. Hopefully, we’ll do another one in five years. I hope to see these numbers increase; I hope to see the number of jobs that we impact increase, and I hope to see increases in all the numbers.

Is there anything you plan to do short-term based upon what you learned from this study?

JS: First off, I think the value of education, and the value of Trinity Valley in our service area is tremendous. And I think sometimes, because we live with a community college in our backyard, we don’t always take a minute and pause to think about what kind of impact it really has?

Well, if you took $185M out of the economy in our area, that would be a huge impact. To reassure everybody that Trinity Valley is doing it’s part, I’ve shared this with economic development people and local leaders. I think this just kind of reminds people how important this institution really is.