THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996            TAG: 9602240314
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines

STUDENTS TO GAUGE QUALITY OF OUR LIVES THE RESULTS COULD HELP SELL THE AREA TO NEW RESIDENTS.

A group of students at the College of William and Mary is getting a dose of the rigors of corporate marketing.

Fifty undergraduate business students are working on a Quality of Life Index to assess how residents and companies feel about living, working and doing business in the area. The results could be used to help sell the region to prospective businesses and residents.

``It'll really tell Hampton Roads what they're doing well and what they could use to improve,'' said student Jennifer Butsch, who is leading the business sector of the study.

The idea sprang from discussion among members of the executive committee of Plan 2007, the strategic economic blueprint of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, organized with the help of other regional agencies.

By the end of May, students hope to present Plan 2007's executive committee with a measuring stick to judge progress in Hampton Roads, particularly in comparison to the region's competitors, and to provide a tool that reflects changes in the quality of life.

``They've definitely taken a very ambitious approach,'' said Roy Pearson, a regional economist and director of the Bureau of Business Research at the College of William and Mary.

Members of the 2007 group had seen a copy of a Fordham University study that monitors the social well-being of Americans on a national level. Since Fordham University did not have the resources to study Hampton Roads specifically, James Babcock, one of the chairmen of the Plan 2007 executive committee and chairman of the First Virginia Bank of Tidewater, asked Pearson for help.

Pearson recruited associate business professor Don Rahtz and two of his undergraduate marketing research classes to work on the project, which goes into more depth than the Fordham University survey.

The local study will include all facets of life, specifically focusing on businesses, governments, nonprofit organizations and neighborhoods.

The spectrum of organizations under each of those headings is diverse. Students will research nonprofits ranging, for example, from hospice care and family planning to chambers of commerce.

Students will gather data from different agencies and engage in their own primary research with surveys distributed to Hampton Roads residents. They will analyze the data using statistical marketing models. by CNB