101 smart revenue generators

University Business, Dec, 2006

22. Drill for dollars. To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, the University of Akron's (Ohio) supplemental revenue plan is all right-in fact it's a gas. The university has been drilling natural gas wells around campus and selling the gas to local energy companies. The school predicts the gas wells will become a steady revenue source in a few years. Each well costs about $325,000 to drill but an annual profit of $60,000 to $120,000 is expected after three to six years.

23. Sell surplus goods on eBay. Oregon State, Penn State. Michigan State, and Washington State are just some of the schools selling items online. Penn has sold everything from pianos to doughnut machines. The University of Wisconsin opted to eschew eBay and start its own auction site, which brought in $280,000 during its first year.

24. Get institutional researchers' Intellectual property out there. Corporations are in the market for new products and technologies. One way to find them is through UTEK (www.utekcorp.com), a firm that helps schools set up patents for their discoveries and assists in finding public companies looking to purchase them. The company calls itself an intellectual property matchmaker, the University of Maryland patented a technology used for early detection of lung and other forms of cancer, while Emory University (Ga.) patented a receptacle designed to help safely transport sterile and used sharp instruments. Institutions may receive royalties from their patents as well as cash from UTEK's acquisition company.

25. Think spinoff. Ball State University's Digital Middletown Project is a wireless initiative designed to test the educational and social value of delivering high-bandwidth wireless technology to local elementary schools in Muncie, Ind., surrounding homes, and Ball State itself. The DMP generates $500,000 to $1 million in annual revenue through the Office of Wireless Research and Mapping, a business spun off from the wireless project. As a bonus, the Office of Wireless Research and Mapping provides an opportunity for Ball State students to get work experience to make them more marketable, and for faculty to do applied research in their areas of study.

26. Do research for area businesses. Catawba College (N.C.) conducts chemical analysis and research projects for area businesses and industries through its on-campus laboratory, CARL (Catawba Analytical Research Laboratory). Businesses pay a fee for students to conduct company research using state-of-the-art equipment and techniques. The students benefit also, earning money and getting exposure to work-world applications. Participating businesses can use an independent lab for objective analysis, have access to instrumentation and laboratory techniques without purchasing equipment, and have a pipeline for recruiting future employees.

MARKETING/BRANDING/ENROLLMENT

27. Use market research to provide direction on enrollment. For one client institution, Stamats Communications used a tuition-pricing study to help guide how much it could charge out-of-state students. The result was an almost immediate 25 percent increase in out-of-state tuition revenue, with no negative impact on the number of out-of-state students.