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Panel Discusses How to Attract College Graduates to State

Gongwer News Service, Inc. Michigan Report
REPORT NO. 94, VOLUME 42-- WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 2003

Workers in the new knowledge-based economy will want to return from the suburbs to live in city centers, but to do so they need to be attracted by bike trails, Starbucks coffee shops and a vibrant street life, panel members said Wednesday at a forum discussing how to retain and attract college graduates to the state.

Executive Director of Michigan Future Lou Glazer said the population of cities across the nation increased in the 1990s after several decades of decline, and the main groups moving to the cities are immigrants and workers entering the job market out of college, whom Mr. Glazer termed the "creative class."

The knowledge workers that comprise this creative class are looking to live in diverse city neighborhoods with an active streetlife, Mr. Glazer said.

Holly Madill, senior consultant at Public Sector Consultants, said the state will have to reform its urban and rural land use policies in order for cities to provide college graduates with features like concerts, festivals and water sports, which are becoming increasingly important compared to the traditionally-sought security and stability.

"They're looking for daily activities of engagement," Ms. Madill said. "The require more of a blend of these creative characteristics in addition to the traditional factors."

But while the state's auto industry will need more members of the creative class and fewer blue-collar workers in upcoming years, efforts to attract knowledge workers to cities like Detroit will be hindered by the fact that a vibrant city life never developed due to the state's history as a manufacturing center, Mr. Glazer said.

"Michigan is going to continue to be auto-centered, but it's going to be less production-centered," he said. The state will have to change "our perspectives to a changing culture that really doesn't exist in Michigan. ... At the moment we don't have communities attractive to the knowledge class. Communities are going to have to reinvent themselves."

Mr. Glazer added that cities will also have to become more attractive to immigrants, who look to cities for affordable housing and tight social networks.

Among the keys Mr. Glazer said our needed to boosting city life is an atmosphere welcoming members of the creative class, services equal in quality to those found in suburbs, and attractive sites for development.

But not all the presenters said Michigan was doing a bad job of holding onto young professionals. Despite the social and economic changes occurring as the national economy converts from its manufacturing base to information-based services, the state currently is successful in retaining most of its college graduates, said Philip Gardner, director of research at Michigan State University's Collegiate Employment Research Institute.

Aside from the University of Michigan, which has a high percentage of students from other states, about 80 percent of Michigan State graduates stay in the state or the Great Lakes region, and graduates of regional schools like Western Michigan University stay in even higher proportions, Mr. Gardner said.

Additionally, the imprint left behind by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will motivate the upcoming generation of college graduates to return to their state and revitalize many of the its institutions, he said.

But at the same time, these graduates will bring a new outlook back to the state, because their college professors encouraged them to travel abroad and become members of a global society, he said.

The state's challenge will also be to restructure its economy as the auto industry employs fewer blue-collar workers, while at the same time developing a mix of social, cultural and professional opportunities attractive to workers in knowledge-based sectors, Mr. Gardner said.

Governor Jennifer Granholm has created the Land Use Leadership Council to suggest changes to the state's land use policies, including improvements to city infrastructure. And the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has been conducting a marketing campaign to encourage college students to consider working in Michigan, said Rosalyn Jones of the economic council.

Ms. Jones said the council sends newsletters to 24,000 college students in Michigan and neighboring states, adding that at least 65 percent of the students said they would consider living in Michigan and 33 percent said the newsletter changed their perception of the state.