The Regional Economic Development Inc., or REDI, held its quarterly breakfast Tuesday at the Reynolds Alumni Center.
Vicki Russell, publisher of the Columbia Daily Tribune and chair of the board of REDI, which helps the community create and retain jobs in mid-Missouri, said MU is an economic engine for Columbia.
Chancellor Brady J. Deaton spoke about MU’s global reach and why it’s important for Columbia and Missouri.
Deaton cited a National Association of International Educators study that found that the 2,000-plus international students from 120 countries bring $52.4 million a year to the Columbia economy. “These days, [Columbia] is really the world,” he said.
Deaton detailed MU’s numerous international programs and collaborations, highlighting the more than 60 nursing students who fulfilled the clinical requirement of MU’s community nursing course by studying in Africa as well as growing participation in MU’s service-learning programs in Ghana, Peru, Rwanda and Korea.
Deaton also spoke about the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute and the Asian Equity Research Institute at MU that bring investments to Columbia because they don’t exist at any other United States university.
“Mizzou Advantage [allows] a unique linkage of interdisciplinary work that can occur here, and in many ways cannot take place at other institutions because the range of strengths is simply not there,” Deaton said.
“It is that link that is fundamental to future economic growth and will enable this central part of the nation to be just as vital, entrepreneurial and innovative as the East Coast or the West Coast,” he said.
— Kelsey Allen