Shifting sights

This is the final installment of a four-part series examining the interaction between Samford University, its students and residents of the city of Homewood. 

It wasn’t that long ago that many students who came to Samford would barely consider staying in Birmingham once they earned their degrees.

“I clearly remember, 15 to 10 years ago, where we would bring in students and they wouldn’t even think — our top students — wouldn’t even think of working for … a local company. They were headed to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville,” said Samford Vice President of Marketing and Communication Betsy Holloway.

But as the city’s cultural and job opportunities grow, more students are finding something to love in Birmingham — and in Homewood.

“If you had asked me about two years ago if I wanted to stay in Birmingham, I probably would have said no,” said 2017 Samford graduate Cameron Gonzalez. “Honestly, if you had asked me a year ago, I still probably would have said maybe. It wasn’t until I was working in a professional — young professional — environment in downtown Birmingham and seeing the growing urban, young professional side of Birmingham that made me want to stay.”

A 2012-13 economic impact study on the university stated 53 percent of its alumni live in Alabama, and there are about 10,600 alumni in Jefferson County. Those young professionals contribute to Homewood and surrounding cities as they buy homes, work and shop at local companies. 

But Samford itself is a significant part of the Homewood and Birmingham economy apart from the graduates who enter the job market. As the university sets its sights on growing to 7,500 students by 2030, its influence is likely to keep pace with enrollment.

In this final part of The Homewood Star’s series on growth at Samford University, we look at how Homewood and Samford are economically intertwined and the changing attitudes of its graduates toward living in the Magic City.

Samford dollars

The 2012-13 economic study of Samford showed that in the seven-county Birmingham metro area, the university is responsible for $319 million in total economic impact, 1,990 jobs and $4.3 million in local sales tax. While that number is not broken down to individual cities within the metro area, it does include everything from salaries and university expenses to students getting dinner at a local restaurant and visitors renting hotel rooms near campus.

“I can tell you that I see Samford students at just about every restaurant in Homewood any time I’m going there,” said City Council Ward 4 Rep. Alex Wyatt. “Anecdotally, I feel confident in saying that they have a significant economic impact in Homewood and that they’re contributing to the economy.”

The student population and visitors who pass through Samford’s gates for everything from basketball games to professional conferences are a draw for businesses to locate nearby. Target is one recent example, opening in March 2013 about a mile and a half away from the university.

“Go to Taco Mama on Oxmoor [Road] on any given night and you’re going to see 50 Samford students,” Gonzalez said.

Added 2017 Samford graduate Porter Rivers: “I think that having three colleges [in Birmingham] helps provide the types of restaurants and things that come to Birmingham. I feel like, since I’ve been here, a lot of new places have opened that I’m sure appeal to a lot of different people, but especially college students.” 

Samford students also put in more than 927,000 hours in community engagement in the 2015-16 school year. That includes volunteer service, internships for class credit and the clinical rotations of students in the College of Health Sciences.

Mayor Scott McBrayer said he feels fortunate to have Samford in Homewood and that the city would be a very different place in the absence of the students and faculty the university brings. McBrayer himself is a 1992 alum who came from Mississippi and chose to stay in Homewood.

“I am a little partial. I did graduate there,” he said.

However, the benefits don’t run only one way. Being located in the small town of Homewood, with easily available shopping and a safe community feeling, is as beneficial for Samford recruiting as the university is for local businesses and tax revenue.

“Our students love Homewood,” Holloway said. “It’s a big selling point for us in recruiting students; the fact that we’re located right here in a suburb that has all the qualities that Homewood has is a tremendous positive for us.” 

Holloway plans to commission in this upcoming school year a new economic and community engagement study of the university. She said the university has been more rigorous in tracking data related to its impact, and she looks forward to seeing how enrollment growth, particularly in the College of Health Sciences, will correlate with Samford’s dollar footprint.

That study should be available around spring or summer 2018 based on Holloway’s current plans.

Laws of Attraction

Out of Homewood’s estimated population of 25,700 people in 2015, the U.S. Census estimated the 20-24 and 25-29 age ranges were the two largest demographic groups. It’s a city that draws young professionals and families in part because of its proximity to Birmingham’s amenities, as well as some features that are unique to Homewood.

“We know that Homewood’s population has gotten much, much younger over the past 15 years. Whether it’s Samford or other schools, obviously young people are attracted to Homewood and want to move to Homewood,” Wyatt said. “The city is happy about that, and I think it’s a sign of a healthy and growing city.”

As graduates look for a place to start their careers and, potentially, their families, what’s at the top of their minds is finding a job. But current young adults also place a high emphasis on quality of life: entertainment and recreation options, safety, cleanliness, education and other factors that are unrelated to their employment prospects.

“There’s a great urban revitalization, and there’s a lot of great jobs, at least for what I want to do, and my subject of study, there’s a lot of jobs in those industries, and so Birmingham’s a perfect mix of really all the Southeastern cities, I think,” Gonzalez said. “I think it’s a really great city to start a post-grad life in.”

2017 graduate Kay Caldwell said having a job lined up at Regions Bank made the decision to stay in Birmingham easy, but it wasn’t the only factor.

“Just because I know a lot of my other friends are staying here, it was encouraging to me,” Caldwell said. “It’s a fun place to be, [and] there is fun stuff to do.”

Holloway has noticed similar priorities in talking to Samford students and reading research on the subject.

“The research shows that [millennials] … care as much about quality of life. They want to decide where they’re going to live first, and then they’ll find the job,” Holloway said. “I think the quality of life, that work-life balance that millennials seem to care about, is something that all cities and communities need to think about.”

With Birmingham’s larger job market and downtown entertainment options just on the other side of Red Mountain, Homewood is positioned to attract young professionals with many of those quality of life features — such as shopping and dining, green spaces and a top-notch school system — they prize that may seem lacking in the downtown core.

“Homewood is so unique in that it is extremely walkable and navigable within its own 8-square miles, but it is also only five minutes from the heart of downtown Birmingham,” 2014 Samford graduate Sarah Anne Elliott said. “I know that I love being able to recognize my neighbors on morning walks and that I know the name of my postman, but I also love how easy it is to get downtown.”

Wyatt did note, however, that the rising prices and availability of houses can make it tough for a person just starting their career to live in Homewood. He said some young professionals may wait a few years to be on firmer financial footing, and ready to start a family, before looking at Homewood as a hometown.

“The good thing about Homewood is everyone wants to live here … [but] there’s only so many houses and if everybody wants to live here, the prices only go up,” Wyatt said. “It does make breaking into Homewood more difficult.”

Elliott works for the Homewood Chamber of Commerce in addition to living in the city. She was a Signal Mountain, Tennessee native and didn’t decide to stay in Homewood until her senior year of college. The time she had spent volunteering as a Young Life leader at Homewood Middle and Homewood High, as well as internships at Trinity United Methodist Church and The Alabama Baptist, helped make Homewood more appealing.

“Most of my friends decided to stay in Birmingham as well, so ultimately it was the relationships I made throughout my undergraduate career that compelled me to stay,” Elliott said.

Birmingham Rotaract President Jeris Gaston said many of the young professionals who join her service organization are looking for a place where they can be invested and see themselves as part of a larger community.

“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,” Gaston said.

“With all the things that’s going on in the city, and all the excitement, the enthusiasm, the college kids know this is a growing city. It’s been a very welcoming city,” McBrayer said.

Making Birmingham millennial-friendly

While Homewood’s location allows it to keep its small-town appeal with all the perks of a major metropolitan area, there’s still work to be done in Birmingham to attract and keep young graduates.

State House District 47 Representative Jack Williams recently announced his campaign to join the Jefferson County Commission. One of his principal platform points is “brain drain,” or the loss of talented individuals to other cities. Though enrollment rates at UAB and Samford are rising, Williams pointed out that the overall Birmingham population has remained relatively flat, meaning adults are choosing to relocate for work, family or other reasons.

“We already see the significance of the universities in helping us tread water, population-wise,” Williams said. 

In his view, Birmingham has been surpassed by cities like Charlotte, Memphis and Atlanta, but that’s not reason to despair. Instead, he wants to see city and community leaders learn from the mistakes other cities have made, to create “a climate of opportunity where college students that are here choose to look for opportunities in this area” and those who left for college or job opportunities see “coming back to Jefferson County to live and work is not only a viable option, but their preference.”

Williams sees Samford’s growing emphasis on healthcare programs and entrepreneurial projects like Innovation Depot as a step in the right direction, and he said he would like to see a technology and research “corridor” of businesses across Birmingham to draw young talent.

McBrayer said Homewood doesn’t have specific projects to attract young people, but that the priorities the city has focused on have helped it line up with what many new graduates are looking for.

“All those things become huge factors when people get out of college and look at where they want to live and raise a family. And right now we’re definitely winning that, in the area,” McBrayer said of Homewood’s parks, schools and shopping. “I think you try to run your city and have enough options for the younger people, when they’re getting out of college, to be attracted.”

Williams said the optimism many of Birmingham and Homewood’s young residents feel about the city could help drive the area forward.

“We’re now drawing a younger demographic that’s starting to see the positive things about our community as well,” Williams said. “We don’t completely grasp how good it is here and how much better it could be.”

“I think Birmingham is up and coming,” Caldwell said. “It just kind of shows that people are trying to move here and chose to stay here.”