More than $3

billion of the system's $8 billion economic impact can be attributed to

seven Atlanta-area campuses: Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Kennesaw

State University, Clayton College & State University, Southern Polytechnic

State University, Georgia Perimeter College and Atlanta Metropolitan College.

Clayton State's

economic impact has been most prominent in the Gateway Village development

project. The first part of Gateway Village, the new Georgia State Archives

building, is currently under construction immediately adjacent to the

Clayton State campus.

The companion

to the state facility, the United States Southeastern Archives building,

is expected to break ground later this year. Additional units of the Gateway

Village project, which was first conceived by former Clayton State President

Dr. Richard A. Skinner more than five years ago, will include a conference

center, a hotel, class "A" office space, a new Morrow post office

and a rail station on the proposed Atlanta to Macon commuter rail line.

Clayton State

has also impacted metro Atlanta through producing students who are highly

trained in the use of technology in education.

Since January

1998, all Clayton State students have had access to notebook computers

through the University's Information Technology Project.

In addition,

metro Atlanta, including Clayton State's main constituency, Atlanta's

"Southern Crescent," has also benefited directly from the university's

other groundbreaking Information Technology program, the Information Technology

Career Ladder, which rapidly produces graduates in specific technology

fields through linked certificate programs, associate degrees and bachelor's

degrees.

The Intellectual

Capital Partnership Program, an initiative of the Board of Regents' Office

of Economic Development, commissioned the study by Dr. Jeffrey M. Humphreys,

director of economic forecasting at the Selig Center.

Humphreys said

the university system's 34 institutions also collectively accounted for

101,427 jobs in the state during fiscal year 2001 - 2.8 percent of all

the jobs in Georgia, or about one job in 37.

Approximately

43 percent of the university system's jobs are on campus - representing

employees of the University System of Georgia - and 57 percent are off-campus

in either the private or public sectors.

On average,

for each job created on campus, 1.4 off-campus jobs exist because of spending

related to the institution, he noted. Altogether, the System generated

$3.7 billion in labor income in fiscal year 2001.

"The University

System of Georgia truly is an economic engine that helps to power our

state on many levels, from producing graduates to building capital projects,

to leveraging our employment and spending power," said Chancellor

Thomas C. Meredith.

The Selig Center

study supports a 2001 report by the National Association of State Universities

and Land-Grant Colleges, which concluded that state and land grant universities

are "major economic players in the cities and towns in which they

are located."

The complete

report is available on the university system's Web site, www.usg.edu ,

under "Publications." Clayton College & State University,

a state university of the University System of Georgia, is located in

Morrow.