Shifting sights
This is the final installment of a four-part series examining the interaction between UAB, its students and residents of the city of Birmingham. To read previous stories in this series, visit ironcity.ink.
UAB is the source of more than 61,000 jobs and $4.6 billion in total economic impact each year in Alabama, most of that spent in Birmingham. The growth of the university and the city are so intertwined that one could not exist without the other.
“If it wasn’t for the university, I’m not sure Birmingham would be having the success that it’s having as a city,” said Larry Norris, the president of downtown-based Lewis Communications.
And as a new generation of UAB graduates finds something to love in Birmingham rather than relocating to Nashville, Atlanta or Charlotte, that economic impact is reaching further into established companies and young startups.
In fact, 2017 graduate Emory Moe has found a trend among her own group of UAB friends that would have surprised the average Birmingham resident even 10 years ago.
“All of my friends who have moved away have really regretted it and have tried to find a way to get back,” Moe said.
The recent growth of cultural and recreational opportunities in Birmingham is partly attributable to the interests of students and young professionals, and it also helps UAB recruit new students on its way to a goal of 20,000 students by 2018.
In this final segment of Iron City Ink’s series on the growth of UAB, we look at the economic impact the university has on the city, and how Birmingham is positioning itself to fight the “brain drain” of losing its young professionals to other cities.
Blazer boomtown
Based on an economic impact study in the 2008-09 fiscal year, UAB’s annual impact on the state is more than $4.6 billion. That number includes university jobs, events, tourism and out-of-town visitors, university research and the money students spend each year to decorate dorm rooms or grab lunch.
Overall student enrollment that year was just over 16,000, and it has since grown to a fall 2016 enrollment of 19,535. With growth trending upward, the university has commissioned Tripp Umbach, a consulting firm from Pittsburgh, to complete a new community and economic impact report, which was scheduled to be complete this month.
The purchasing power of UAB’s students, faculty and visitors influences the behavior of businesses such as restaurants and apartment complexes, where the right spot near campus can boost their success. Lewis Communications relocated downtown in December, Norris said, in part because they hoped to appeal to potential hires from the university.
“We know that the millennials and the college graduates these days, they tend to want to live in an urban area. And that’s an important part of our workforce now,” Norris said.
Mazi Rasulnia, the president of health care support company Pack Health, said when he and co-founder Will Wright decided they were ready to take their startup from Innovation Depot to its own location, they intentionally stayed near UAB for research and employment opportunities. Their office on Sixth Avenue South is now host to a number of interns and employees from UAB.
“Birmingham and UAB, specifically, provide a really great foundation and attract a lot of talented people,” Rasulnia said. “Oftentimes we do export them, so we’re trying to keep them here.”
The food culture is one of the things that drew Nadia Harden, a theater and health care management major set to graduate in 2019, to choose UAB. She has enjoyed the new additions to downtown, such as Publix and the Pizitz Food Hall.
“I was looking for city life,” Harden said. “I like the fact that UAB is part of the city, and the city is a part of UAB. I went to the big SEC schools. I kind of felt claustrophobic in those towns where if the university was not there, there was nothing there. I like that the university thrives on the city, and the city thrives on the campus.”
Birmingham may not have the population size of its neighbors Atlanta and Nashville, but mechanical engineering student Andrew Whitfield agreed that the city has plenty for UAB students to do.
“The city has everything. You’ve got your metro area. You’ve got your downtown, your little-bit-calmer Southside. If you want to go somewhere nice, you can go up to Mountain Brook and Highlands and all that,” Whitfield said. “It captures a lot of different types of people, the city itself. You can see anywhere from really formal people to your average guy sitting at Rojo up on Highlands.”
In the 2008-09 impact study, UAB estimated that with mid-range growth, the university’s total economic impact on the state would be $6.6 billion by the 2019-20 fiscal year.
Fresh perspective
Current UAB students and new graduates are more likely to see the positive sides of living in Birmingham, particularly if they have only experienced the city during its cultural and lifestyle revitalization of the past few years.
“Birmingham, at least recently, has become more of that hipster young culture, but I think there is a huge revitalization of culture in Birmingham, which is really exciting for my generation, especially if I have the opportunity to go to graduate school here,” said Joanne Jacobs, a biology student from Flowery Branch, Georgia.
“I think it’s just lacking in growth, but it’s coming,” said Moe, who has lived in Southside for five years. While she said the city could use more parking and affordable housing, she doesn’t see an absence of culture and things to do.
“There’s a good vibe in Birmingham right now. It’s easier to recruit people from out of town to Birmingham than maybe it was 10 years ago,” Norris said.
UAB National Alumni Society Executive Director Jennifer Breland said the university has always had a high concentration of graduates stay in the area, but now it’s a top choice rather than a backup option.
“I think we’re seeing it become more of a first choice to do so,” Breland said.
Rasulnia said Pack Health has hosted young professionals from California and New York, and many of their preconceived notions of the city were proven false. He said it’s a different atmosphere even from when he moved to the area 15 years ago.
“I remember a lot of the classmates I had, and even friends, were like, ‘Oh, why are you in Birmingham?’ I think that perception is changing very quickly,” Rasulnia said.
UAB Career & Development Director Melissa Whatley said she doesn’t see many students eager to get out of town as they plan their post-graduate life.
“I don’t hear students saying that they want to get out of Birmingham,” Whatley said. “I don’t sense that even in the least.”
In regional alumni gatherings, Breland said, she hears echoes of the sentiments Moe hears from peers: “I think there’s an increasing interest to come back to Birmingham.”
The current generation of graduates and young professionals — often referred to collectively as millennials — tends to place a higher emphasis on quality of life when choosing where to live compared to previous generations. Landing a job is still top of the list, but a social scene, activities and a place where they can get invested are close behind.
“The interactions are still really important, the cultural scene is really important, the open green space that we have, the food scene,” Rasulnia said. “They’re looking for challenge, and Birmingham has a good mix of that, both in health care, IT, in finance ... So there’s a lot of opportunities to really showcase your skills in different industries.”
Whatley and Breland said based on many of the students they work with, as well as research at other institutions across the nation, new graduates value flexibility and mentorship opportunities within their workplace, but they’re moving away from the idea of working long hours to get ahead in favor of a more complete social scene and work-life balance.
Jeris Gaston, the president of Birmingham Rotaract, said the young professionals who join her service organization are looking for a place to fit within the community where their presence has a tangible impact.
“People are a whole lot more invested in the city,” Gaston said. “I think they want a sense of community, and I think Birmingham is slowly becoming a true community again … People want to be part of something that matters to them.”
Birmingham ‘brain drain’
Though Birmingham may be feeling more love from UAB students and young professionals, it hasn’t translated into a large-scale change in behavior of the city’s young population.
U.S. Census counts of the population declined from around 242,000 in 2000 to 212,000 people in 2010, and it has since stayed almost flat. The 20-24 age group increased its share of the population only slightly, from 8 percent in 2000 to 8.9 percent in the 2011-15 estimate, and 25 to 34-year-olds bumped up from 14.9 percent to 16.3 percent.
Birmingham is still fighting the draw of larger neighboring cities, as well as the desire of graduates like Moe or public health student Hassan Sanruddin to travel and experience new places before possibly returning to Birmingham “at some point,” Moe said.
“I would like to travel, and I would like to live in a bigger city, but I think Birmingham is a great retirement city,” Sanruddin said.
The city also still has room to grow in its economic offerings. In November 2016, the Birmingham Business Journal published an analysis from American City Business Journals that ranked Birmingham 102 out of 106 cities for private sector job growth. From September 2006 to September 2016, Birmingham lost an average of 2.79 jobs in the private sector per day. And all the green spaces and new restaurants in the world can’t outweigh the importance of a steady, paying job for someone at the beginning of their career.
“Today’s grads, clearly they want a return on their investment,” Whatley said. “Most of them are going to go where the money is.”
State House District 47 Rep. Jack Williams recently announced his candidacy for the Jefferson County Commission, and one of his platform points is fighting “brain drain,” or the loss of talented individuals to other cities. He said the fact that Birmingham’s overall population has remained stagnant while UAB’s enrollment is growing shows that adults are still leaving the city for jobs, family or other reasons.
Williams said, if elected to the commission, he wants to work with city and community leaders to create “a climate of opportunity where college students who are here choose to look for opportunities in this area” and those who may have left the area see “coming back to Jefferson County to live and work is not only a viable option, but their preference.”
Birmingham doesn’t have the positive name association of Nashville or Atlanta, and marketing the city is one of many possibilities to attract younger residents and keep families. “You don’t hear folks raving about how great things are here. We let the most negative voices in our community define us,” Williams said. “I think this is an incredible community, and we have a lot going for us.”
Williams’ other ideas include boosting tourism, particularly ecological tourism, and attracting international businesses to the area. With the millions of dollars in research going on at UAB and entrepreneurial efforts such as Innovation Depot, creating a “corridor” of research and technology firms in the metro area could create more internship and job opportunities for students.
“We have opportunities here that we’ve not yet fully realized to partner with UAB and get our foot in the door in the research and technology field,” Williams said.
Projects at this scale require cooperation across Birmingham’s municipalities and community groups to succeed. Williams thinks Birmingham should look to the choices made in Atlanta, Memphis or Charlotte to get ideas of what works and what doesn’t. Groups like the Birmingham Rotaract and Young Professionals of Birmingham already promote civic engagement, so their own perspective could make them natural allies in marketing the city.
“We want to develop leaders to push Birmingham forward,” Gaston said.
But the success of Birmingham in attracting millennials doesn’t rest solely in citywide efforts. Rasulnia said paying attention to what young professionals want in a workplace can help individual businesses hire the best talent coming out of UAB, Samford or even colleges in other cities.
“I think it’s more about, you know, friendships and community. I hear that a lot from a lot of the millennials who are in our workplace,” Rasulnia said. “The culture is also really important of that company, so you feel like you’re walking into a family as opposed to a corporation.”
Building up the strong points that Birmingham has and working on its weaknesses could help the city reach the day when graduates don’t think of the city as a place they might come back to “at some point,” as Moe put it, but as a place they just don’t want to leave.
“I think that there’s something really awesome about watching your city grow,” Moe said.