That Fort Lewis College is a major benefit to Durango is hardly news. Beyond offering higher education, the Fort brings a broad array of cultural events including theater, music and continuing education plus, of course, a variety of athletic programs. Its students contribute to the community, augment the labor force and enliven events. Its faculty raises the bar in local debates.
Attaching a dollar figure to FLC’s contribution, however, puts the school’s impact in better perspective. And with that, serves as a reminder that Fort Lewis’s importance to Durango is broad and deep.
FLC trustees got an early look Friday at an upcoming study detailing the school’s economic contribution to Durango and the Four Corners. The bottom line is that the Fort’s economic impact totals more than $150 million, or 5 percent of La Plata County’s gross domestic product. Also cited in the report is the finding that almost 4 percent of all jobs in La Plata County are generated by Fort Lewis spending. That includes direct and secondary jobs.
Overall, Fort Lewis spending includes direct college expenditures; spending by FLC students, faculty and staff; capital improvement projects; and visitor spending. Also factored in is the value of the FLC degrees held by the estimated 500 graduates who have chosen to remain in the community.
That money comes from a number of sources. The biggest lump is from tuition and fees at $20.2 million. The Fort’s bookstore and cafeteria are next at $15.2 million. State and local grants make up $14 million.
Meanwhile, the college spent almost $40 million on salaries and benefits for faculty and staff members. And most of that went straight into the local economy.
At the same time, visitors to Fort Lewis events spent another $1.85 million. Students spending topped $29 million. Applying a multiplier of 1.8 (each dollar has more than $1 worth of influence), Fort Lewis students and visitors alone added more than $55 million to the local economy.
The study was done in house by Angie Rochat of FLC’s Office of Sponsored Research & Federal Relations; Richard Miller of the school’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning; Michele Peterson of the Fort’s Budget Office; Mitch Davis with office of Public Affairs; and Doug Lyon, dean of the School of Business Administration.
(Lyon is also a former Durango city councilor and mayor, as is the business school’s Professor Emeritus Joe Colgan. That is not a direct economic impact, but it does further illustrate FLC’s involved role in the community.)
As the study concluded, “The vibrancy of Fort Lewis College has increased the impact of the college economically, socially and culturally for Southwest Colorado and its residents.”
It is worthwhile to be reminded of that from time to time.
