Published: October 16, 2009 10:21 pm         

MARK BENNETT: Post-recession Terre Haute has an ace-in-the-hole in ISU

TERRE HAUTE — Gorillas command attention.

And rightly so. Ignoring one — especially close by — can become a lost opportunity, if you enjoy living.

That primate shows up as a metaphor for something that is obviously dominant, yet overlooked, denied or minimized. The creature cropped up earlier this month when I asked Indiana State University economist Robert Guell to envision a “post-recession” Terre Haute. Not surprisingly, Guell’s answer contained no sugar coating.

“I think we will come out of this recession in much worse shape than we went into it,” he said. “The gorilla in the room is the Pfizer departure.”

The closing of that pharmaceutical plant last year deleted more than 600 high-paying jobs, a cornerstone employer, and the charity giving and volunteerism those workers injected into community. The Great Recession didn’t force the Pfizer closing. Instead, the infamous failure of its locally made inhaled insulin product, Exubera, caused the shutdown.

So, in a way, that event created Terre Haute’s own, personal recession. The global recession then heaped more troubles onto this town. The auto industry’s collapse caused downsizings and slowdowns at Wabash Valley parts plants and dealerships.

The housing industry’s dive hurt new brick and exterior siding factories around Terre Haute. Even Sony’s high-definition Blu-ray discs, Guell said, face challenges from lower-quality, but cheaper competitors.

“There’s not a great deal to be excited about at the local level,” Guell said, looking to 2010.

Clearly, Terre Haute needs a new, positive gorilla in the room.

On Wednesday afternoon, ISU President Daniel Bradley described some future plans that could fill the economic voids left behind by the nearly two-year recession. In a nutshell, Terre Haute finally would become a college town. Bradley connected the dots between the city’s prosperity and that of the university. Thank goodness.

Like it or not, the Terre Haute economy — like the American economy — will change, perhaps dramatically, thanks to this life-wrenching downturn. The way we buy vehicles, accumulate retirement funds, purchase health insurance and seek business loans is different. State and local governments must function differently. Entire industries face total overhauls just to survive.

In the face of all that upheaval, Terre Haute has an advantage — the stability and promise provided by its four local colleges, especially the largest one, ISU, right in the middle of town.

If this city wants a future brighter than it otherwise would be, it needs to hitch its economic wagon to the university. The five-year strategic plan and facilities master plan laid out by Bradley in his fall address depicts a closer-than-ever connection between the community and the campus. As he put it, “If we are going to be successful as a university, it’s critical that Terre Haute be successful. We need to work together.”

Best of all, Bradley didn’t just utter platitudes. He made ISU’s intentions fairly specific.

Most notably, Bradley gave the Riverscape project the university’s active support. That wide-ranging effort, generated by a collection of people convinced the Wabash River can become a greater quality-of-life asset, envisions recreational, residential and commercial development along the banks of Indiana’s most famous waterway. ISU wants to have a presence along the river banks, too.

ISU would like to relocate some athletic facilities west of Third Street, and nearer to the riverfront. The Sycamore track and field facility, currently Marks Field on Third Street’s east side, would move west. The university also would create a new “gateway” to the campus off Third Street, with a connection to the Riverscape, Bradley told the Tribune-Star’s Sue Loughlin. One preliminary, purely conceptual drawing included a bridge leading across the river to ISU facilities on the east bank, followed by the gateway site along Third Street.

Bradley also mentioned the possible construction of new student housing downtown, perhaps south of Cherry Street. He outlined the creation of on-campus athletic facilities; renovating or expanding Normal Hall and the College of Nursing, Health and Human Services at the ISU Arena; completing the move of the School of Business into the stately, old Federal Building; the partnership with Union Hospital in the Rural Health Innovation Collaborative; and the upcoming construction of the Barnes & Noble bookstore at Fifth and Cherry streets.

The president also wants ISU to grow from 10,000 to 12,000 students by 2014. That expansion, along with the master plan ideas, could give the community something to get excited about, economically.

College towns have a leg up on others, right now. This month, the statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey showed that college cities were attracting more Americans on the move than other places. The advantages? Universities are steady, significant employers. The students keep the population young and those folks could, possibly, stay in that town after graduation if — and this is a big if here — the community embraces a college town atmosphere where newcomers are welcome.

The days of ISU and the community functioning in two parallel but largely disconnected worlds can give way to a local economy that caters to both.

“We want ISU to help energize downtown and create a great college town atmosphere,” Bradley said.

If that happens, memories of this recession’s gorillas in the room will fade much faster.



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.