Instructions

Based on research by Royal Dawson, an independent economic impact consultant and director of institutional research at the Keck Graduate Institute of the Claremont Colleges, the Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI) provides this online tool to show estimated statewide and Indiana Economic Growth Region (https://www.in.gov/dwd/2653.htm) economic impact.  These estimates are of overall economic impact, jobs created, and tax revenue generated to the state of Indiana and the federal government.  The report generator also provides capital expenditure and alumni impact data.  These figures are available by the total ICI sector and by individual institution.

The report generator is pre-loaded with public domain data and data from a supplemental survey that was distributed to institutions in summer 2018.  Missing data for individual institutions was imputed by allocating parameter amounts by the institution’s enrollment.  Administrators at ICI colleges have access to a private economic impact calculator in which they can model the effects of updated input values (e.g. updated student enrollment or capital expenditure figures) on economic outcomes.  In this way, the calculator allows for refinement to the numbers representing the different economic analysis levels (i.e. the state and the region), but the report generator can provide quick estimates based on the pre-loaded information.  

Navigating the EIRG

The EIRG display is divided into three sections.  The upper-left panel contains a dropdown menu for users to select the entire ICI membership or an individual institution.  The bottom left display, “Methodology,” provides the method background and summarizes how the statistics were sourced and calculated.  The right panel contains a summary of ICI’s, and individual institutions’, associated economic impact statistics. 

Within the “Economic Impact Summary,” the data are displayed in three main sections: Total Economic Impact to the State, Total Five-Year Impact of Capital Expenditures, and Total Impact of In-state Alumni.  Next to the summary tab are four additional tabs that graphically display data from the Total Economic Impact to the State section.  These graphs depict details on direct expenditures, total impact, jobs created, and taxes generated.

EIRG Parameters

Sixteen individual parameters are used to estimate the impact of ICI colleges on both their individual Economic Growth Region and the full state of Indiana.  To aid in interpretation, definitions of these parameters are provided below.

  • Institution:
    This drop-down allows the user to select the impact of the entire ICI membership or individual institutions.
  • Total Institutional Expenditures:
    This value is preloaded from the institution’s FY 2017 IPEDS Finance Report.
  • Salary Expenditures:
    This value is preloaded from the institution’s FY 2017 IPEDS Finance Report.
  • Total Faculty and Staff:
    This value is preloaded from the institution’s FY 2017 IPEDS Human Resources Report.  It includes both full and part-time staff.
  • Total Students:
    This value is preloaded from the institution’s fall 2017 IPEDS Enrollment Report.  It includes both full and part-time students in the total.  It does not include distance education students who live outside of the state of Indiana.
  • Estimated Percent of Instate Expenditures:
    This parameter represents the percentage share of institutional purchases (e.g., utilities, office supplies, computers, health care and insurance) that occur with vendors who reside within the state of Indiana.
  • Student Living Expenses:
    Student expenditures are based on College Board Data on the mean private college cost of attendance excluding room and board or $3950.  Institutions that do not feel this amount is representative of costs to their students may estimate cost by using the institutional student expenditure budget less tuition and room and board (i.e., books + transportation + miscellaneous expenditures).
  • Total Visitors:
    For institutions that did not complete these items in the supplemental survey, the impact calculator estimates the number of visitors based on the institution’s enrollment.  However visitor totals can vary greatly from institution to institution.  A “person-day” is the number of visitors multiplied by the number of days a person visits the institution.  For example, if a family of four stays overnight two days, the person-day count is 8.  The calculator considers four different types of visitations that have separate algorithms for the calculation of visitor expenditures and impact.
    • Admissions, Commencement, and Related Visits
    • Alumni Events
    • Conferences, Publicly Accessible Facilities, and Related Events
    • Sporting Events
  • Five-Year Capital Expenditures:
    Because college capital expenditures vary widely from year-to-year, the impact calculator uses a five-year window.  To calculate the impact of capital expenditures over a shorter period of time, staff with access to the private-facing calculator can still enter the shorter-duration direct expenditures amount in the “5-Year Capital Expenditures Field” (account for the years in your interpretation).  Annual impacts of capital expenditures can be determined by dividing the total economic impact and total jobs generated by the number of years across which the direct expenditures were totaled.
  • Total Undergraduate and Graduate Alumni:
    Estimated number of living alumni with Indiana residency.
  • Mean Undergraduate and Graduate Alumni Income:
    The preloaded income figure is based on the median income of bachelor degree recipients (for undergraduates) and master’s degree recipients (for graduates) aged 25-64 from the US Department of Commerce, Money Income of Households, 2017. 

If you a have any additional questions regarding the use of the EIRG please contact jdocking@icindiana.org.