Economic boom resonates in excessive student spending

As an agent at Council Travel ran through some of the more exciting student getaways for this spring, he mentioned Australia and New Zealand but curiously omitted European destinations.

"Well," travel agent Dan Lawing explained, "a lot of people have been to Europe a few times."

At the Espresso Royale Cafe on Central Campus, an LSA sophomore sipped a cup of coffee while catching up on homework. Amy Biehl described herself a regular of the coffeeshop.

"It's very indulgent," she said. "Coffee can cost $3, and no one blinks an eye."

And at the University Golf Course, Clubhouse Manager Charles Green reminisced about the 1960s, when 18 holes cost $1.25. Today, some students will pay up to $44 for a round. "I see a lot of students with a lot of money," he said.

From California to Kalamazoo, the U.S. economy is booming. The signs are clear: a soaring stock market, trace unemployment and a trillion-dollar federal budget surplus.

And by any measure - from the bustle at area coffeeshops to the proliferation of cell phones on campus to the tight student labor market - the boom is resonating throughout the University.

Although it is impossible to obtain exact figures for the expansion's local impact, students and area businesses describe a phenomenon that is transforming campus life.

As their parents pocket record disposable income, much of that money trickles down to students, but some parents may be unaware of where that money goes.

"If my parents knew how much I spent on cigarettes, beer and coffee they would be disgusted," Biehl said.

Students are spending at record levels and fueling a thriving local economy.

"Business is great," said Kim Barr, a manager at the Southern Exposure tanning salon on South University Avenue.

The salon raised its prices this fall, she said, and business still increased. An annual tanning package runs in the hundreds of dollars.

Just down the street, at Council Travel, which claims a 70-percent market share of student air-travel, signs of record spending are everywhere.

Earlier this year, when the agency offered roundtrip European packages for $300 each, nearly 300 sold, Lawing said.

For the millennium, he said, London and Australia are "big-time."

"A lot of people are doing bigger things than New York," he explained.

The travel agency has hired an agent to focus exclusively on trips around the world, which can span several months and cost several thousand dollars.

Trying to make sense of the cash influx, Lawing said, "I guess people are willing spend more money."

The boom, even as it injects dollars into area establishments, is tightening the labor market and making hiring a nightmare, as fewer students work.

"Our staffing is worse than it's ever been," said Ron Buhl, the manager on duty at Good Time Charley's on South University Avenue, trying to survive a busy lunch hour with only three servers.

"No one wants to work this year," he said. "People just don't need to."

The most abstract, but perhaps the most enduring, consequence of the economic boom is its transformation of traditional images of the college student.

In popular culture, a latte-sipping, SUV-driving, designer-clad student is replacing notions of the poor, struggling college co-ed.

"I think students are not so strapped for cash today," said Leonard Edick, a salesman at the Van Boren clothing store on State Street. "Madison Avenue is pounding away at (students) because they know you have the money."

Even as millions of Americans have profited from the recent economic expansion, prosperity has yet to touch many families across the country.

Locally, University President Lee Bollinger called for increased sensitivity to the wide range of socio-economic backgrounds on campus.

"There's no question that the boom has worked its way through some parts of the country, but not all," he said. "That leaves a deepening divide, and the University has to be attentive to that."

On the upside, he said philanthropy has surged during the boom, giving a big boost the University's fundraising effort.

"This is definitely giving it momentum," he said.

11-19-99