A month ago, Indiana University's first-ever provost and second- ever University chancellor began in their new posts. The men's basketball coach is departing soon, as is the dean of arts and sciences; even the president has announced he'll be moving on before too long. It's a time of great transition on the other side of Indiana Avenue.
Right now it's Oscar season in Hollywood, when we're reminded locally of the triumph in 1980 of a story that was about both Indiana University and the city of Bloomington. "Breaking Away" was filmed on location, but Bloomington wasn't just a backdrop. The movie was all about the differences between IU students who came from elsewhere, and young people who were born and raised here, how they related and how they clashed as they made the transition into adulthood. Bloomington, as it was, warts and all, was a featured character as much as Dennis Christopher's or Paul Dooley's. "Breaking Away" was the definitive "college-town" movie.
In April 1980, nominated for five Oscars, that classic story of a bucolic college town won for Best Original Screenplay. As it happened, at that same moment, Bloomington itself was making a definitive break from its past. April 1980 was the moment that Bloomington, Indiana outgrew the term "college town."
Nations, states, even universities are formed by fiat. Someone powerful says, "When in the course of human events," or "We the representatives of the people of the Territory of Indiana," or "It shall be the duty of the General assembly...to provide...a state university," and it happens.
But cities are the largest form of political unit that crop up naturally, according to author Jane Jacobs. They form where people gather, to trade goods, to trade services, news, ideas. Cities are not just population centers, they're economic centers -- marketplaces.
With the advent of the automobile, the federal Bureau of the Census began to look at the area surrounding a city, to count all the people coming in (or going out) to work. By 1950 the government had defined the notion of a "metropolitan area" and had begun tracking and comparing them as well as cities proper.
A metropolitan area usually, but not always, has 100,000 or more people, and typically includes an important city of 50,000 or more, the county (or counties) it resides in, and the counties bordering them that are socio-economically integrated with the city in question. There are now more than 300 metro areas in the U.S.
It was the 1980 census in which Bloomington for the first time exceeded a population of 50,000, thus joining the ranks of the nation's metropolitan areas.
While the Census Bureau does the counting, determination of metropolitan areas, and of the definition of which outlying counties are to be included in one, are actually made by a different federal agency: the Office of Management and Budget. There is no better demonstration that "metropolitan area" is of economic significance. It is a simple, easily determined indicator of economic as well as demographic activity.
Localities have since found these measurements to be of value when determining where their economies stand. Bloomington's own Economic Development Corporation, with the cooperation of the Indiana Business Research Center at IU's Kelley School of Business, has used just such data to benchmark Bloomington's economic progress against similar cities, every two years since 2000. I quote from the most recent BEDC Benchmarking report, issued in late 2004:
"With which cities should the Bloomington/Monroe County area be compared for purposes of benchmarking? In theory, comparison places should be similar to the local area with respect to size and growth rate, economic characteristics, and other qualities that help distinguish the Bloomington area from other cities in general."We owe the BEDC thanks for commissioning the series of benchmark studies on Bloomington. Since I was eager to put such information to use in thinking about city issues beyond purely economic ones, I wondered what criteria they used for choosing Bloomington's peers. They said:
"...the cities used in [the 2000 and 2002] benchmarking efforts (which differed somewhat from each other) provided a starting point. BEDC officials then identified cities with which the Bloomington area has competed in recent years for attracting new businesses or to which the local area has lost site location competitions.While these criteria are not unreasonable for an economic development study, I believe they have too narrow an appeal. If a city is much larger or much smaller than Bloomington, is one business' decision really enough to make that city one of our peers? The IU Bloomington campus is an enormous part of the local economy; how can we really compare ourselves to a city without a big university? Is this study really comparing apples to apples? Nevertheless inspired that someone had taken the trouble to attempt a comparison at all, I set out to find criteria that were more quantifiable yet served a broader interest. And I found that I had to begin by reckoning with the elephant in our midst.
“Also considered (but not required in every case) was the presence of a university in the community, since IU plays such a prominent role in the local economy and culture, and many firms consider the presence of a university a significant benefit in site decisions."
Wanting to channel the energy of the many soldiers returning from WWII into something productive, Congress passed the G.I. Bill to make it easier to go to college, and by the fifties the ranks of students swelled. The Baby Boom followed, and in the sixties college ranks exploded. This one-two punch was a combination unparalleled in the history of America's cities.
Bloomington provides a simple illustration. In 1945, there were about 5000 students at IU. By 1960, there were 14,000 students at IU. By 1970, there were 30,000, an increase of 600% over 25 years. It took another 25 years for IU to add another 5000 students. College enrollments across the country mirrored these figures during that period.
A trailing indicator of the college explosion became evident only after the boom died out. In 1970, the Census recorded that in more than 1 in 4 cities which became metropolitan areas that year, college students comprised at least 15 percent of the population - - of the whole area, not just the central city. In each of these cases, the only possible explanation was the postwar growth of their local universities.
These weren't college towns; these were college boom-towns. I have come to call this new phenomenon "the college-driven metropolitan area."
Ann Arbor, home of the U. of Michigan, is the original college- driven metro. It has always been the largest, because Washtenaw County also includes Ypsilanti, home of Eastern Michigan U. Ann Arbor first became a metropolitan area in 1960 with a population of 172,000, 15% of whom were students. Ten short years later, the Ann Arbor area had grown by more than a third to 234,000...yet the proportion of students had increased to 26%.
The most spectacular of all college-driven metros is Austin, TX. It first became a metropolitan area in 1950, with a population of 161,000. By 1970 it had doubled in size, thanks to the combined enrollments of the University of Texas and Southwest Texas State U in nearby San Marcos. 18% of the entire metropolitan area of Austin was college students in 1970.
Austin and 8 other college-towns joined Ann Arbor that year, which before were not big enough to be metropolitan areas:
In each of these areas, students made up well more than 15% of the population that year. In the Lawrence area alone, fully one-third of all residents were students.
Even though the college boom ended by 1970, it didn't manifest itself in other college-towns until later. In 1980, four more cities became metro areas because of their colleges' growth:
Another four grew to this status in 1990:
Most recently, we've had another boom with the class of 2000. Ten cities became metro areas and that year had at least 15% college students:
How is the 15% figure any less arbitrary than a city that beats us out for a new business site location? In a metro area where at least 15% of the population is the student body of a residential college, the college is also the largest employer, often by a substantial margin.
Below 15%, there's usually another type of business which employs more people: often it's a hospital system, sometimes it's an industry with anchor tenants (like Novell and WordPerfect in Provo, UT). One city which fell between 10% and 15% I have added to the list of CDMs because its largest employer is its local university: Fort Collins, CO, home of Colorado State. And one area didn't make the list despite having the requisite number of students, Bloomington-Normal, IL, because the megacorporation in its midst, State Farm, was clearly driving the economy, outnumbering employees of local colleges like Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan by more than 3 to 1.
Other than those, the 15% figure defines a surprisingly bright line, below which something other than higher education helps explain the economy of the area.
It's important to note the significance of a university's employees in this discussion. As of the 2000 census, the OMB has eliminated all but one criterion for including a county in a metropolitan area. Quote:
"A county qualifies as an outlying county of a [metropolitan area] if it meets the following commuting requirements: (a) at least 25 percent of the employed residents of the county work in the central county or counties of the [metropolitan area]; or (b) at least 25 percent of the employment in the county is accounted for by workers who reside in the central county or counties of the [metropolitan area]."
Bloomington is a perfect example of this phenomenon, too. In 2000, the OMB expanded Bloomington's metropolitan area to include Owen and Greene Counties. The area now includes places as far as Spencer and Linton and numbers 175,000 people. Yet IU students to this day represent more than 20 percent of the population of all 3 counties put together.
The BEDC specifically chose not to study this phenomenon.
"...While expanding the metro area's population by nearly half, adding these two rural counties also served to significantly alter the resulting nature of what was commonly known as the 'Bloomington metro area.' Their economies are quite different from that of Monroe County, so a profile of the Bloomington area based on the new metro-area definition would give a potentially misleading impression of what this area is actually like.
"Thus, the definition used in the present study for the Bloomington area and comparison cities is the county containing each metro area's central city. These central-city counties are generally the largest, most economically important counties among multi-county areas comprising larger metros, and they thus capture effectively the essential qualities of each peer city."
I don't think Ellettsville or Stinesville really reflect the essential qualities of Bloomington, either, but they are in the central county too. Here is where I fundamentally disagree with the benchmarking study. To use only the central county misses the whole point of the metropolitan area concept. One cannot ignore the economic indications of the outlying counties, just as one cannot ignore the effect of a large, inlying, resident-student populace.
Putting the BEDC's choices to the college-driven metro test, about half of their benchmark cities are keepers, including Ann Arbor (which despite its size still readily compares to Bloomington):
These cities are not our peers. If anything, they should be a separate control group against which CDMs as a group compare themselves.
When I arrived here in 1986, I came across a quote in the IDS from someone who was in charge of local tourism. The quote was: "Bloomington without IU? Would be...well, Martinsville."
I'm not sure I bought into that idea, but I never forgot the quote. Then I did some research. From 1970 to 2000, the IU student body only grew 22%, while Monroe County grew 42%. The three counties together also grew 42%.
Over the years, as I found myself making a life in Bloomington away from the university, I kept wondering: if this place is so nowhere without IU, how does one explain the continued, consistent growth of the city and the area when the student population has all but stopped growing?
Twenty years later, I say it's time to turn that maxim around. "What would IU be like without Bloomington?" It's just as absurd a question as the other one. It might be more like Athens, Ohio. Athens is a city of 21,000; 15,000 of them -- more than 70% of the town's population -- are students at Ohio U.
It might be more like Clemson, South Carolina. Clemson University has a student population of 17,000...yet Clemson, SC is a city of 12,000! Only when you see this map do you see how that can be. Now there's an interesting sight: the Clemson campus is technically outside the city limits of the city of Clemson, although it is clearly an integral part of the city.
There's no better counterpoint to the increasingly urbanizing and robust environment in which IU's flagship campus finds itself. Athens OH and Clemson are not metropolitan. Athens County, OH has grown at less than a third the rate of Monroe County since 1970. These are not economic engines. They are thin shells around their universities. These are truly still college towns.
Even though long-time manufacturing jobs have famously left the community, the population of Bloomington and the surrounding area have never shrunk, going back all the way to its very first census in 1820. And like its CDM brethren, the Bloomington area is outgrowing both the nation and the local student body. Just as one cannot compare an "apple" city, like ours, to an "orange" city, without a large college, one cannot explain Bloomington's size, growth and economy by its university alone.
When it comes to benchmarking our progress to other cities, it's impossible to ignore the symbiotic relationships they have with their neighboring jurisdictions. And just because the Census Bureau doesn't concern itself with college enrollments doesn't mean we shouldn't. These two simple measurements -- college enrollment and metropolitan population -- taken together offer us a wealth of understanding about the area we call home. College- driven metros are surely Bloomington's primary demographic and economic peers. It's my belief that these areas also are the best to compare ourselves to looking for the best legislative ideas for Bloomington, which is a big reason why I embarked on this research project in the first place.
The phrase "college town" fails to describe Bloomington, because it implies that the college is the only source of the town's economy. With all due respect to Indiana University, that's simply not true here. Maybe Athens, Ohio without its university, would be just another small town like Martinsville. But IU should acknowledge that the policies of its host city, derived independently, made this town as green, attractive and walkable as IU's pretty inner campus. The good people of Bloomington have as much impact -- not more, not less -- as IU administrators do in making this area livable both culturally and economically
Bloomington hasn't really been a "college town" for at least a quarter-century. It's time for us all to retire that term. The town you may remember from your childhood has broken away; it's now a metropolitan area, an enormous university the core of its economic engine, an area complete with downtown apartments, 2 million bus riders a year, and enough bitchin' restaurants to take the Fort Wayne Convention & Visitors' Bureau in a fight. This is a core city now, with suburbs, even exurbs. The mayor now holds state of the community addresses jointly with the county. We can't go back.
Our community has always grown in size; whether we like it or not, it will continue to grow. While population growth is a sustainability issue, Rather than continue to wish for what was, let us now clearly see what is, so that we may live with what shall be.
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(C)2006 Stephen Volan. All rights reserved. www.volan.org
APPENDIX A: UNPRESENTED REMARKS AND OTHER NOTES
APPENDIX B: TABLES (in separate file: CDMlist.pdf)
TABLE 1: COLLEGE-DRIVEN METROPOLITAN AREAS
TABLE 2: NEAR MISSES AND OTHER COMPARABLES
APPENDIX A: UNPRESENTED REMARKS AND ADDITIONAL NOTES
Census data was easy to get from the Bureau of the Census. But college enrollment data is not nearly as easy to find. It is not usually thought of as population data because the student body is so fluid. Placing them in the context of a metropolitan area solves that problem, and brings in those people who work at the university as well.
There may be mistakes in individual numbers. Fall enrollments are bigger than spring; enrollments vary year to year by amounts more dramatic than in a typical city or town. I've used enrollments in the fall semester of the census year. I think as long as you use the same standard for each area, the differences factor I've been encouraged to submit this study for publication in an academic journal, but to do that I'll have to cite my sources legibly, rewrite the text from speaker's notes, and so on.
How does one explain the expansion of Bloomington's metropolitan area? People who are looking for housing that's less expensive than they can find in Monroe County, then commuting back to work here. It is self-evident what that demographic group is, and where they work, that could cause that expansion.
Despite Bloomington's relative success as an employment center, it is not exactly a boomtown, either. Decades after the college boom, the definition of a CDM is that there has been no other apparent economic influence on the area.
Some of the areas that fell into this demographic category, or came close, have since outgrown CDM status. While the US grew about 37% between 1970 and 2000, and the Bloomington area grew about 42% in that period, Tallahassee has doubled in size since 1970; Austin has quadrupled.
Lincoln, NE, Madison, WI, and the Research Triangle of Raleigh- Durham- Chapel Hill, NC, all home to major state universities, came close to college-driven metro status, peaking at about 12.5% students. Each has virtually doubled in size since 1970. Even the Big Ten cities of Columbus, OH and Minneapolis, which were never close to CDM status and both measure their metropolitan populations in seven figures, yet each have grown more than 50% since 1970.
Jobs are being created in those places at an alarming rate. They are economic powerhouses. What do they have in common? They're not just home to major public research universities; they’re also state capitals. The resulting combination provides such economic stability that these areas are veritable petri dishes for private job growth. However, while these larger places resemble us to a great extent, we do ourselves a disservice if we measure Bloomington against them.
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