University of Minnesota News

Big Ten Provosts Commit to Working Together to Make the Midwest's Economy More Competitive

MINNEAPOLIS, June 30 PRNewswire — Twelve provosts from the Big Ten universities and the Midwest region say they will work together on efforts to make the Midwest's economy more competitive and are calling on governors to join them in this effort. The provosts from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), a consortium of the Big Ten universities plus the University of Chicago, signed a resolution to that end on Friday, June 27. The resolution came during an economic summit convened by the provosts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

University leaders, leaders of regional banks, chief executive officers, government leaders, economists, researchers and professors participated in the summit in an effort to find ways to break down barriers that prevent them from effectively working together to build a vital Midwest economy. The summit, "Developing a Regional View of the Midwest Economy: Breaking Down Barriers That Impede Regional Progress," was sponsored by the University of Minnesota, the CIC and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

"Like the national economy, the Midwest economy is facing great challenges. We believe it is important for our universities to work closely with each other and with CEOs and leaders of government to make the Midwest economy more robust," said University of Minnesota Provost Thomas Sullivan.

To watch a video interview about the summit with University of Minnesota Provost Thomas Sullivan, visit: https://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embed/14499

"There has to be a better partnership — public-private partnership between the political leadership of each state and the business and corporate leaders, to be able to understand that they need a closer relationship with the universities that are literally in their back door and have all the talent to educate and to train the next generation of workers," Sullivan said.

The region already possesses vitally important assets, including the Great Lakes, significant industrial and corporate entities, world-class research universities, dynamic cities and agricultural resources — all of which are central to a vibrant Midwest economy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) reports that the 12 CIC universities received over $3.1 billion in federal science and engineering support in FY2005. This represents 12.4 percent of the total federal science and engineering dollars — some $25.4 billion — awarded in the U.S. for that year. In addition, CIC universities have been awarded 18 percent of the total NSF science and engineering dollars, and nearly 16 percent of the total U.S. Department of Agriculture dollars.

"Just to show you the importance in terms of education research and economic development, if you look at the Big Ten Universities and the University of Chicago together, we spend more than $6 billion in research annually, we have 50,000 faculty more than 142,000 staff and employees and some 385,000 students. It's something like a fifth of the economy in the upper Midwest in terms of that research impact and productivity," Sullivan said.

Universities play an important role in the economy, Sullivan said.

"Particularly in an economy like this," Sullivan said. "The very first thing that goes when you're in a recession or a near recession is the research and development in businesses and corporations. That's the future lifeblood for the business — their research and development and that research and development still goes on at the universities. And it's the university researchers who will do that kind of planning."

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reports that the seven states of the Midwest that have schools in the CIC — Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan — have a robust nonprofit sector, which is highly competitive for federal research and development funds, with three of the top 10 nonprofit recipients of federal research and development funds in the Midwest — the Mayo Foundation, Battelle Memorial Institute and the IIT Research Institute.

"When you assess the human and physical capital assets of our region, they are considerable; however our region's position is slipping relative to the rest of the country," Sullivan said. "This may be a watershed moment for the Midwest in terms of an available, talented workforce, as well as productivity."

The region attracts research and development and boasts educational resources, but the Midwest has also witnessed a dramatic restructuring of the region's economy to rely less on manufacturing. And, the Midwest population is also growing older than the nation on the whole and, in turn, the region has been losing its influence at the national level — since 1930, every Midwestern state has lost congressional seats.

"The Midwest economy is undergoing an uneven transition to a new economic model propelled by knowledge based industries. While cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis have prospered by reinventing themselves and becoming meccas for new industries and talented workers, other parts of the region struggle with moving up the economic food chain. What is clear is that the production and retention of skilled human capital will have to be at the center of any regional plan to promote economic vitality," said Richard Mattoon, senior economist and economic advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The region has strengths to build on, but it is losing ground as other regions make a more compelling case for where investment should go.

"The Midwest is failing the challenge of globalization, largely because it's so balkanized, with each state trying to compete in the global economy. Midwestern states are simply too small, too incompetent, too obsessed with the wreckage of the industrial economy, to deal with the problems of the future, like education. It's time for other players — cities, businesses, especially universities — to come together in a concerted regional approach that would leverage the Midwest's strengths, not undermine them," said Richard C. Longworth, senior fellow, Chicago Council on Global Affairs and author of the new book, "Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism" (Bloomsbury). Longworth spoke at the summit.

CIC member university leaders as well as leaders of regional banks and other summit attendees want to stop that erosion and, instead, start gaining ground.

"We believe it is time for us to do more than talk together. It is time to act together," Sullivan said.

CIC: The CIC is made up of 12 research universities with campuses in eight states which include the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.