This paper, one of a series from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's project "Higher Education and the Economy of the West," describes 31 programs in 16 western states that illustrates higher education's contribution to the economy. Four school-university partnerships are described: the Pueblo School District 60/University of Southern Colorado Alliance, the California Academic Partnership program, the Puget Sound Educational Consortium, and the Bakersfield (California) College Tech Forestry program. State government-university initiatives include: the Center for the Advancement and Study of Tourism (South Dakota), the Morrison Institute for Public Policy (Arizona), the Utah Partnership for Educational and Economic Development, Total Quality Improvement in the North Dakota University system, and the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute. The small business outreach programs include: the South Dakota Business and Education Institute, the Center for Business and Economic Research (Nevada), the Idaho Small Business Development Center, the Small Business Development Center Network (Hawaii), Minnesota SURE Access, the Montana Entrepreneurship Center, and the Spokane Business Incubator. Technology transfer and workforce training programs listed include: the Engineering and Environmental Research Center (South Dakota), Optical Sciences Center (Arizona), Project S.U.C.C.E.S.S. (Hawaii), Labor Education and Research Center (Oregon), Public Utility Research and Training Institute (Wyoming), and Maricopa County (Arizona) Community Colleges. Outreach programs for rural and underserved populations are: the Alaska Native Health Center Program, the Regional Services Institute (Oregon), Area Health Education Centers (Arizona and New Mexico), the Central Oregon Consortium for Higher Education, and Electronic Distance Education (Utah). There are four regional initiatives: the WAMI (Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) medical education programs, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, NorthWestNet, and the Western Institute of Nursing. A list of all the programs recommended, by state, is appended. (Contains 20 references.) (CH)