In 2007, the University of North Carolina issued its “UNC Tomorrow” report, designed as a blueprint for the university system. The document envisioned a broad role for the university and recommended that UNC do more in “enhancing the economic transformation and community development” of North Carolina.
Economic prospects for both the state and the university have changed dramatically since then, but that hasn’t stopped UNC. In November, representatives of businesses, higher education, and government got together at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, largely as a result of the UNC Tomorrow initiative.
“Innovation 2010” brought together 200 people for networking, self-promotion, and strategizing about how higher education can contribute to growth, especially in Catawba, Burke, Caldwell, and Alexander counties. That “Unifour” area, with Hickory its biggest city, is a long-time home to textiles and furniture manufacture — and a high-tech industry, fiber optics — which have fallen on hard times.
Sponsored by a coalition of universities and community colleges, the November 10 meeting featured an upbeat talk by former Gov. James Hunt (by video). Leslie Boney, associate vice president for economic development and engagement for UNC, proposed regional development strategies. And Andrew Hargadon, a professor of innovation and technology management at the University of California, Davis, placed innovation in a broader framework.
Using examples such as Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park, Hargadon explained that “it’s not the idea, it’s the network.” Ideas abound, but few people know how to bring them together into a new product or service.
Along the gym’s walls, booths showcased the services of such groups as Appalachian State University’s Greater Hickory Partnership and Center for Entrepreneurship; Western Carolina University’s Center for Rapid Product Realization; and the Manufacturing Solutions Center at Catawba Valley College.
Can the university system and its community college partners revive the “Unifour” area? A case was made for a university role. Ten representatives of regional companies, from old-line Hickory Chair Company to high-tech ECR Software, shared ways in which they had worked with universities.
For example, Jay Reardon, president of Hickory Chair, transformed the company in the 1990s by helping employees create customized furniture more quickly. He consulted with N.C. State University’s Industrial Extension Service, and Catawba Valley Community College provided simulation training for his workers.
Yes, universities can serve businesses. But how much can they contribute to economic prosperity? The Pope Center’s Jay Schalin has been exploring this question, most recently interviewing an innovator with more than 70 patents to his name. Richard Cheston, the chief technical architect of a business unit at Lenovo in Research Triangle Park, is skeptical. He says that university faculty members aren’t close to customers, they don’t recognize the critical role of low costs, and they don’t need the money.
But Sid Connor, professor of technology at Appalachian State and one of the Catawba Valley event organizers, is confident that businesses can tap into a rich reservoir of supportive resources at universities. The problem is that universities find it difficult to reach out — market — to business. “There’s a great deal that we can do, but the hard part is finding that conduit to make it happen,” he says.
One cannot talk to Dan St. Louis, who heads the Manufacturing Solutions Center of Catawba Valley Community College, without being struck by his willingness to go to extreme lengths to make his region more prosperous through helping local businesses. Yet the fact that his organization depends on taxpayer subsidies for 40 percent of its revenues raises questions about its ability to keep the momentum going in the new budget environment. And government subsidies tend to diminish efficiency, whatever the environment.
Very little is known about the mechanisms by which universities spur growth—or even if they do. Right now, though, talented and energetic people in and around the Catawba River Valley are doing their best to bring it about.
Jane S. Shaw is president of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy (popecenter.org).