10 Executive summary SUNY Westchester Community College (SUNY WCC), established in 1946, has today grown to serve 15,417 credit and 6,943 non-credit students. The college is led by Dr. Belinda Miles, President. The college’s service region, for the purpose of this report, is Westchester County. While SUNY WCC affects the county in a variety of ways, many of them difficult to quantify, this study considers the college’s economic benefits. The college naturally helps students achieve their individual potential and develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to have fulfilling and prosperous careers. However, SUNYWCC impacts Westchester County beyond influencing the lives of students. The college’s program offerings supply employers with workers to make their businesses more productive. The college, its day-to-day operations, and the expenditures of its students support the county economy through the output and employment generated by county vendors. The benefits created by the college extend as far as the state treasury in terms of the increased tax receipts and decreased public sector costs generated by students across the state. This report assesses the impact of SUNY WCC as a whole on the county economy and the benefits generated by the college for students, taxpayers, and society. The approach is twofold. We begin with an economic impact analysis of the college on the Westchester County economy. To derive results, we rely on a specialized Multi-Regional Social Accounting Matrix (MR-SAM) model to calculate the added income created in the Westchester County economy as a result of increased consumer spending and the added knowledge, skills, and abilities of students. Results of the economic impact analysis are broken out according to the following impacts: 1) impact of the college’s day-to-day operations, 2) impact of student spending, and 3) impact of alumni who are still employed in the Westchester County workforce. The second component of the study measures the benefits generated by SUNYWCC for the following stakeholder groups: students, taxpayers, and society. For students, we perform an investment analysis to determine how the money spent by students Introduction SUNY WCC impacts Westchester County beyond influencing the lives of students.
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