By … this won’t work.
Or better yet, tell me that it can.
The situation: Recently, Tyson eliminated about 1,800 jobs in Emporia. Big problem for any town, but huge problem for a city of 25,000 people. Twenty-five percent of the children in the Emporia schools have one or more parents who are Tyson employees.
Hundreds of people have left/will leave town which will lead to dozens of other businesses closing, a stockpile of empty houses that won’t sell, apartments that won’t rent.
All in a time when the rest of the country is also in a recession.
So. Major problem.
My solution: promote the heck out of ESU. We already have hundreds of foreign students that bring their money here (a good thing) from other countries (even better). These students pay rent, they buy food, they buy gas. They support our economy without depleting much from our infrastructure.
Foreign students come to Emporia because this is a relatively inexpensive college. So I say recruit students in a big way, especially foreign students. I mean hundreds more, a thousand more. There are/will be enough empty apartments to go around.
With hundreds more students, ESU could hire more white collar employees that would help balance this town. They’d hire more professors, instructors, support staff. All good things.
If they need more room for classes, ESU could temporarily rent space somewhere (the empty Outfitters Store, church basements/meeting rooms, vacated school buildings, etc.)
By recruiting new students, there’s not the outlay of huge capital that you’d have with starting a new manufacturing business, yet you get residents in town, albeit transitory, but residents who will contribute to our economy.
I was talking with a friend this afternoon and we discussed the fact that Emporia doesn’t really have an identity. This is a college town, but it doesn’t seem like it. When you think Manhattan, you think K-State; Lawrence, KU. Emporia is just Emporia, something of a slaughter-house town.
ESU should be Emporia’s shining centerpiece. Many are tired of Emporia being a blue collar town, but we don’t promote one of our largest white collar businesses (ESU) the way we should.
We don’t have a college district, no Aggieville, we don’t offer much to the students. We just expect them to fit in.
So tell me, why can’t/don’t we focus on ESU as being one major step toward saving Emporia?
It’s already a teachers college. And there’s a nationwide shortage of teachers. Ah yes, we have the means and the ability to produce something that’s in demand. Why are we not seeing this as an opportunity?
Double the recruitment team, visit every high school in Kansas, recruit education students.
There are probably many reasons why we “can’t.” Maybe that’s the problem. We see the can’ts instead of the cans. We need to look for possibilities instead of obstacles.
If we’re looking for a way to bring in jobs, ESU seems like a great place to start.
We’re smart people. We can do this.
Great idea Cheryl, great thoughts and now get the great people of Emporia to get behind it. Start at the college, the newspaper, the businesses. You go girl!
We maybe should change our name – University of Kansas – Emporia Campus! Lordy, tuition and cost of living would be cheaper and that would be an attraction.
I think the trend for international students is already in play. We have about 350 now but just two years ago we had under 200. ESU has a goal of 500.
This is a great interview with the producer of the documentary “2 Million Minutes.” It contrasts the experience of high school students in the US, China and India. Part of the interview suggests a US policy change on international students after graduation.
Corky, the Jay-Hornet-Hawk!
I’ve always thought this. I don’t know enough about it to suggest how to make it work.
I’ve wondered why when other college towns are known as college towns, Emporia was primarily known for IBP then Tyson.
My thought was to have Emporia grow, smoothly, by turning it into a place people in other places would wake up on a Saturday morning and say, “Let’s drive down to Emporia for the day,” like we in Emporia say, “Let’s drive up to Lawrence for the day.”
People here, especially students, complain that there’s nothing to do. I’m not sure why they feel that way, but compared to Lawrence……….
So, would it be a good idea to look at successful university towns and see what the towns offer that draw people to them to spend time and money, even to want to move there, go to school there, make a life there? Emporia deserves that too.
YOu know, perhaps without the smell of Tyson, the town will be known for other things now and can grow in a more positive direction. Of all our senses, sight, touch, hearing, smell, smell is the most compelling.
One thing that distresses me, unless I have misunderstood, is the issue in the legislature currently, about not allowing “children of illegal immigrants” attend state colleges. First of all, they are “legal,” even if their parents are not, until they reach the age of 18 (the usual age of a college freshman), but then it takes about 3 years to go through the long and expensive process of getting legal citizenship, so what do they do in the meantime?
There’s also the question of out of state tuition for anyone outside of Kansas to go to college in Kansas.
It seems to me that is a measure to discourage students rather than encourage them.
Up to about 15 years ago tax dollars covered about fifty percent of actual cost of a Kansas higher education. Now that figure is at 25% or so. There is a relative new “near” law which enables students in bordering states to attend 1.5 times in-state tuition.
In recent years I have talked to families from Texas and bordering states who said that with scholarships and cost of living these students could attend less expensively here at ESU than back in there home state.
That’s good. The cost of living in this part of the country is relatively inexpensive. It’s gone up in Emporia, but is still good. So, maybe people from all over will take a look at ESU, if they know about it.
I love the atmosphere at ESU. It just feels good. There’s a vibrancy in a learning place.