Economic Impact of NMU

Posted by Lake Superior Community Partnership on September 2, 2013

It is that time of year again.  NMU students are back!  While Marquette has been busy with tourists and events all summer long, there is an added energy when Northern is back in session.  As you can imagine, NMU, its students and visitors provide a great deal of economic impact on our community as well as the entire U.P.  To find out more we turned to an NMU report titled “The Economic Impact of Northern Michigan University on the Upper Peninsula” updated in July of 2012.

Let’s start with direct spending.  The total spent by the university, its students and NMU visitors in the 2010-11 academic year totaled over $205 million.  The total economic impact of those expenditures is estimated to be over $311 million, generating over 4,540 jobs in the U.P.  This spending breaks down to $228 million by the university, $74.6 million by students and $9.2 million by visitors.

To further break down student spending, we learned that students spend about $8,026 each on room and board and $2,491 on books and other miscellaneous items.  Student housing can be either dorms, rental housing or family housing.  Below is the estimated number of students in each of these categories:

Undergrads from the U.P.
University Housing – 638
Rental Housing – 2194
Family Housing – 1600
Undergrads from the Lower Peninsula
University Housing – 1530
Rental Housing – 1725
Undergrads from Out-of-State
University Housing – 862
Rental Housing – 708
Grad Students
Rental Housing – 681

Typically students living in family housing are not paying rent but parents are paying taxes.  Students in university housing have their rent and basic food covered.  Students in rental or family housing spend an estimated $3,988 on food and students in rental housing are paying an estimated $3,455 on housing.  When housing, food and other expenses are combined, NMU students spent approximately $63.7 million the 2010-11 academic year.  Have you ever been in any of the retail stores during move in weekend?  You see carts full of groceries, school supplies and household necessities.

Visitors are also a large part of the economic impact.  These visitors come to Marquette for campus visits, cultural and sporting events and conferences.  These guests brought in over $6 million in spending to the U.P. in 2010-11.  Much of this spending is on hotel stays, restaurants and other entertainment.

While we are highlighting the impact of higher education on our community in this column, it is just as important to recognize that early education programs and K-12 schools are also economic drivers.  Many are top employers in their respective communities and contribute to the economic base in a similar fashion.  As the school year begins, it is a good time for all of us to remember how critical education is to our community and economic success.  Aren’t these young men and women our future?

CEO, Amy Clickner, writes this bi-weekly column for the Mining Journal.