NORWICH – Despite having the highest concentration of college students in the country, Central New York is experiencing an unprecedented mass exodus of educated young people. According to Dr. Ray Cross, president of Morrisville State College, something must be done to put a stop to the “bright flight” of 24 to 35 year-olds in order to ensure the continued economic viability of the region.
“It is the worst type of loss,” Cross said on Tuesday, as he addressed a group of local business leaders at a breakfast hosted by Commerce Chenango as part of the chamber’s Good Morning, Chenango series. The event, sponsored by GHS Federal Credit Union, took place at Lt. Warren E. Eaton American Legion Post 189 in Norwich.
These young, educated individuals are leaving New York, Cross explained, primarily because of “sluggish” job growth resulting from the state’s current business climate, high utility costs and high taxes.
“The most effective solution ... is growing existing businesses,” he said, but doing so would likely require lowering the cost of doing business as well as streamlining state bureaucracy and reforming regulatory systems. By asking for a quick show of hands by audience members, however, Cross was able to illustrate how few people were confident that those changes would take place even within the next 10 years.
But there is still hope.
“This is a strategic location,” he explained, citing Central New York’s proximity to 25 percent of the world’s fresh water supply and stating that the region is within 750 miles of half the population of both the United States and Canada. Some believe, he added, that this region is also within 500 miles of three quarters of North America’s wealth.
“This makes us incredibly attractive,” he said.
There are other opportunities for reversing the “downward spiral” and retaining educated individuals beyond creating job opportunities and growing existing businesses. According to Cross, his institution of higher education is focusing an increasing amount of resources on encouraging entrepreneurism and engaging young people in the problems faced by local communities as well as our state and our country.
“I consider (growing entrepreneurs) the most important thing we can do for the future,” he said.
According to Cross, Morrisville began asking its incoming students several years ago if they aspired to one day own their own business. More than 40 percent of all freshmen, and 60 percent of “students of color,” indicated that being a business owner was indeed a goal, he reported.
“We have the entrepreneurs. They just don’t know how to get to that place,” he explained, which is why Morrisville will be adding a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship and small business management this year. This program, which he said will go hand in hand with other degree fields, will strive to not only teach students the basic principles of business, but also help them connect to capital and establish a business of their own before graduation.
The state college is also working to engage students in the world’s problems with programs of study in renewable energy, food production and waste.
With the Renewable Energy Training Center, they seek to train students in the maintenance, repair and development of renewable energy systems. They are also actively researching technology, bio-diesel processing, the use of algae for lipid production and carbon sequestering and micro-hydro opportunities for local farmers.
Consumers are more concerned than ever with where their food comes from, according to Cross. Through Nelson’s Farms, the college is encouraging the local growth and processing of food. It has already helped bring 370 products to market for 320 clients.
Nowhere is the college seeking to find opportunities in someone else’s problems more than with waste. Perhaps the biggest opportunity Cross sees is the vast amount of pre- and post-consumer food waste produced in and around New York City, 97 percent of which is shipped out of state. But he doesn’t want to provide an alternative dumping ground for the thousands of tons of garbage produced by city residents. He wants to use it as fuel to create energy.
“Almost 5 percent of homes in New York State could be powered by the food waste alone that comes out of New York City,” explained Cross, describing the process by which food scraps, dirty paper and recyclable cartons could be put through a methane digester to generate power, and then the liquids and solids separated to be used as organic fertilizer and soil amendments respectively.
“We’re sitting on a gold mine. We just have to leverage that opportunity,” he said.