Willie Sutton, the notorious 20th century robber who died in 1980, denied in his autobiography that he ever said the reason he robbed banks was “because that’s where the money is.” That was made up by a reporter, he said.
Accurate or not, the quote has evolved into what is sometimes called “Sutton’s law,” which is often invoked to medical students as a metaphor for focusing a workup on the most likely diagnosis, rather than wasting time and money investigating every conceivable possibility.
The maxim can also explain why so many engineers, accountants and other professionals educated at Mississippi universities take jobs in other states. That’s where the money is.
A report by Mississippi State University’s National Planning and Analysis Research Center revealed that students at Mississippi universities earning degrees in education and health care are more likely to remain in the state five years after graduation than those majoring in science, technology, engineering and math.
That’s understandable. Although the pay may be lower in Mississippi than in other states, good schoolteachers can get a job here. So can nurses. The job opportunities aren’t as plentiful in the technical and professional fields that are drawing graduates to other states.
“I heard Texas loves our engineering graduates,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Eugene "Buck" Clarke, R-Hollandale, told Higher Education Commissioner Glenn Boyce last month during a legislative meeting centered on higher education funding, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
If he has been listening, Clarke may also have heard that Texas and other states also love accountants graduating in Mississippi.
Another interesting part of the report showed that for the class of 2013 (the most recent data available) only 17 percent of out-of-state students enrolled in Mississippi’s universities remained in the state the year after graduation.
Does all this mean Mississippi’s universities should stop trying to attract out-of-state students or offering courses of study that produce graduates that are in demand outside the state’s borders?
Of course not.
As Charlie Mitchell, the associate dean at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism, pointed out in his op-ed column this week, importing college students to Mississippi is a growth industry with some 16,000 nonresident students now in this state. A major reason for this is relatively lower tuition costs in Mississippi.
But these students are still paying tuition and fees, as well as living expenses. They are an economic asset to the state and the university communities for the time they are here, however long that is. Their added enrollment enables the universities to enhance their programs and helps offset the decline in state funding.
Don’t blame the universities for producing graduates that are in demand elsewhere or for attracting students from outside the state. If anything, that is a testament to the schools’ quality.
And it should be noted, not all of these graduates are leaving. Many are staying and producing. Let’s hope, in time, more will.
