25 Chapter 2: Economic impacts on the Westchester County economy In-county students contribute to the student spending impact of SUNYWCC; however, not all of these students can be counted towards the impact. Only those students who were retained, or who would have left the county to seek education elsewhere had they not attended SUNY WCC, are measured. Students who would have stayed in the county anyway are not counted towards the impact since their monies would have been added to the Westchester County economy regardless of SUNY WCC. While there were 13,697 students attending SUNY WCC who originated from Westchester County (excluding personal enrichment students and dual credit high school students), not all of them would have remained in the county if not for the existence of SUNY WCC. We apply a conservative assumption that 10% of these students would have left Westchester County for other education opportunities if SUNYWCC did not exist.10 Therefore, we recognize that the in-county spending of 1,370 students retained in the county is attributable to SUNY WCC. These students, called retained students, spent money at businesses in the county for everyday needs such as groceries, accommodation, and transportation. The average costs for students appear in the first section of Table 2.3, equal to $13,900 per student. Note that this table excludes expenses for books and supplies, since 10 See Appendix 1 for a sensitivity analysis of the retained student variable. Student spending impact The total impact of student spending is $10 million in total added income and is equivalent to supporting 108 jobs.
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