Relating the economic impact of University of California programs may not be the best way to increase the university's share of the state budget, according to UC Berkeley emeritus professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics George Goldman.
Goldman presented his ideas about public perceptions of UC economic benefits at a recent faculty seminar. The event was covered by UC Berkeley student blogger Tess Townsend at http://caledinsider.org. Underscoring the emerging importance of citizen journalism, Townsend writes that her work has been picked up by the likes of Politico, the National Student News Service and the Colbert Report.
Goldman said in his presentation that anecdotes are more powerful than numbers in communicating the value of programs.“People don’t change their minds based on economic impacts,” Goldman was quoted in the blog.
Publicizing the fiscal impact of UC may be futile.
“The good news is maybe we don’t need to know,” Goldman was quoted. “Maybe we just need to say this is the state of California, this is the University of California, and the state needs this institution.”