Most San Diegans can rattle off a long list of benefits of living in a city with more than two dozen colleges and universities. Included would be the whirls of pure knowledge that whip up around institutions of higher learning, the energy and imagination of their students, and the intellectual and cultural influence of faculties and staffs. Our oldest institution of higher learning, San Diego State University, has now been energizing San Diego County for 100 years.

    While it seems wrong to ask any university to justify its existence in dollar terms, there is a trend throughout the country — among universities themselves — to make such calculations. We'd love SDSU without the financial justification, but the numbers do paint a vivid picture.

    The workhorse of local educational institutions, SDSU estimates it has a $770 million impact on the local economy each year. The analysis is contained in SDSU's recently released "Investing in the Future of the Region: A Regional Impact Study." Included in that study are the salaries paid by the university, the supplies it orders locally, the contractors who work on campus, the research grant money drawn to the school by professors, and the like. More than half of the university's monetary contribution $455 million is spent directly by the university itself.

    Enormous value is derived from the trickle-down effect. Every dollar injected into the economy by SDSU generates an additional 69 cents of production by local industries. It is estimated that SDSU creates 12,204 jobs within the regional economy that in turn produce $407 million in related wages. Each SDSU student generates $27,000 of economic output. When all of these numbers are bundled together, it means there are 430 additional jobs developed locally per 1,000 students.

    The authors of the SDSU study are quick to agree that a university's greatest contributions can’t be measured by dollars, since they involve intangibles such as the infusion of new knowledge, community services, cultural enrichment and the benefits of a well educated population. Nevertheless, the study included an inventory of the myriad activities that flow out of SDSU into the community. From sea water monitoring to art exhibits to band camp, it’s an impressive list.

    Most impressive of all is SDSU's human impact on the community the alums who help us click as a community and thrive as an economy. SDSU art major Diane Powers recreated Old Town into a world famous tourist mecca. Finance major Douglas Manchester put his mark on the downtown skyline with the high-rise office buildings and hotels he built.

    San Diego State is different from other local universities, explains Professor James Gerber, one of the study's authors. "Most of our students," he says, "come from the local area and the vast majority stay."

    Of the 29,000 current full and part time students, 53 percent call San Diego or Imperial counties home. Another 16 percent hail from Los Angeles and Orange counties.

    In the last 20 years, SDSU has granted more than 120,000 graduate and undergraduate degrees. An estimated 80,000 to 90,000 of those women and men stayed in the region for their first career posts. In recent years, from two-thirds to three-fourths of all graduates stuck around.

    More than 50 percent of all current teachers in San Diego and Imperial counties earned their degrees at San Diego State. Additionally, the growing number of parents who home-school their children receive support and training through the university's Parent Institute for Quality Education.

    Numerous local government officials are SDSU alumni, including all five current members of the San Diego County board of supervisors, Sheriff Bill Kolander and more than 100 other law enforcement officers, three city managers within the county, 38 judges, 13 city and county elected officials, two state legislators and five members of the House of Representatives.

    Many alumni are leaders in San Diego’s scientific, engineering and technical community, says Dean Pieter Frick of the College of Engineering. "SDSU is the major producer of practicing engineers in the San Diego area," he says. "There is almost no major company that we have not touched one way or another."

    Among the companies where SDSU graduates play key roles in research, development, manufacturing and management, Frick says, are Cubic Corp., Rohr Industries, Solar Turbines International, TRW, Science Applications Inc., and Woodward & Clyde, the region's largest environmental engineering consulting firm.

    "We are literally running this entire county, from the middle level to the upper level," explains Professor Dipak K. Gupta, a co-author of the study.

    Having attended SDSU also confers an economic advantage on its graduates. Those who earn an undergraduate degree at SDSU can expect, over a lifetime, to earn an average of $600,000 more in salary than they would have without a degree. This is a 12 percent annual return on the student's dollar investment. Students who earn a graduate degree increase their potential another $226,000, a 12.95 percent return on the cost of the degree.

    Gerber says the economic impact study paints "a picture of mutual dependency a synergistic, evolutionary experiment over time."

     "It’s really a complex institution," he adds. In fact, Gerber says it may be more accurate to call SDSU a "multiversity."

    So, happy 100th birthday, San Diego State multiversity. And thanks for all the gifts you've given us.

    Janet Lowe, along with San Diego Metropolitan publisher Gary Shaw and editor Timothy J.McClain, are among the 150,000 living alumni of SDSU.