When I first joined the economics department at Loyola University in 2001, there were five of us: me, Bill Barnett, Mike Saliba, Associate Dean Jerry Dauterive and Dean Pat O’Brien. Since that time, Saliba retired, while Dauterive and O’Brien left Loyola for other academic positions. John Levendis and Dan D’Amico replaced them.
Our small economics department makes an important contribution to the business school and to the mission of the overall university.
Economics may be boring to some people, but to us it is live, vitally important and an astoundingly interesting subject.
Yes, it has its theoretical and esoteric aspects, but the dismal science is also of great importance as a practical matter.
Economists have a great contribution to make on concerning issues such as unemployment, poverty, urban challenges, health, welfare, education, environmentalism, racism, sexism, etc. One needs only reflect on the current fiscal crisis, the on and off again bailout of Wall Street and the specter of an economic depression to rival that of the 1930s to realize the importance of this discipline.
The economics club is well known university-wide for the debates it features.
Apart from Roger White’s civic engagement initiative, I know of no other campus organization that so avidly pursues this course. Economics makes a strong contribution to the intellectual life of our community through its series of debates. On the negative side, there are lots of students walking around campus 15 pounds heavier than they would otherwise be, given the free pizza we offer at these events.
Over the years, I have been involved in debates in front of the economics club with the Rev. Steve Rowntree, S.J., Bill Barnett, Roger White, Bob Thomas, David White, Boyd Blundell, David Boileau, Mike Perlstein, John Clark and others.
My colleagues and I in the economics department are strong believers in and practitioners of student mentoring.
To this end, we have organized several other regularly held meetings.
On one Friday afternoon each month we have a ‘book of them monthe club where faculty and students meet amicably and discuss the writings of the leaders in our field. Our Wednesday evening film series has also been a great hit with students.
Last semester we started viewing Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose” series of films, followed by a panel discussion led by professors in the economics department, plus a few visitors, such as Sister Elizabeth Willems, of the religious studies department.
As a partial result, I am delighted to report that in addition to Dan D’Amico, some of my former students are now colleagues. Also, there are another two dozen students who have either expressed interest in earning a Ph.D. in economics, are now in graduate school or who will soon obtain a post-graduate degree in economics.
I take great personal pride that, thanks to my efforts, some two dozen of my students’ term papers have been published in refereed journals, many of them co-authored with me.
I am happy that an additional half dozen of what started out as my students’ term papers that were all diametrically at odds with my own views were also published in such venues. Not bad for someone who has only been here for seven years.
Walter Block is the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and an economics professor. He can be reached at [email protected]
