Economics Initiative holds great potential

By Rice Editorial Staff     3/18/14 4:52pm

The Rice Thresher would like to commend the administration’s decision to make changes in the Economics department. Our staff feels like the department as it currently stands is understaffed and does not offer enough courses, both at the introductory level and at more advanced levels.

The Rice Thresher would like to commend the administration’s decision to make changes in the Economics department. Our staff feels like the department as it currently stands is understaffed and does not offer enough courses, both at the introductory level and at more advanced levels. We think the decisions to make the development of the Economics department and to hire a large new staff for the department shows that the administration recognizes the current deficiencies and shows that they are willing to make the necessary changes. 

We hope that the administration targets a few specific areas in their efforts to revamp the Economics department. First, we feel that introductory Economics classes currently offered are inconsistent and at times too challenging. Ideally, all Rice students should graduate with a basic understanding of the economy, but many students are deterred from taking ECON 201, even to fulfill a distribution requirement, because the class is notorious for being catered to Economics majors. Additionally, certain sections of the class, which are dependent on the professor, are rumored to be more difficult than others; the material taught and the subjects emphasized are said to differ greatly. We suggest creating an “Economics for Non-Majors” class, both to promote the idea that all students should have an understanding of Economics and to allow the separation of Economics majors who need a more detailed, rigorous curriculum from Non-Majors who simply want to educate themselves. We also hope that the curriculum for introductory classes will be more standardized so that students can know what to expect.

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Second, we encourage the administration to offer more Economics electives. Many Economics majors have had difficulty registering for Economics electives the past few years, and we hope that more faculty members in the department will increase the number of courses offered. We also hope that, with the hiring of multiple new professors, a larger variety of courses will be offered, and we urge the administration to capitalize on the the interests of the new hires to maximize constructive class discussion and research opportunities. 

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff. All other opinion pieces represent solely the opinion of the piece’s author.

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