Economics Department

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The Economics Department offers a major in economics (with an optional concentration in prelaw studies) and an economics minor.

The aim of courses in economics is to train students to think analytically about economic and social problems and rationally about personal, public, and business decisions. Economics consists of a structured body of analytical principles that can equip the student with a logical, consistent approach both to the great issues of our time and to the everyday choices that confront consumers, political leaders, businesses, and all individuals.

Relatively few tools of analysis are needed to study shortages and rationing, exchange rates and speculation, inflation and recession, money and prices, and monopoly and competition, as well as such social and political issues as pollution, energy, airport congestion, mass transit, the delivery of medical care, and even the personal choice of career and lifestyle. Economic theory can clarify and systematize thinking on these matters, and it is the place of economics in the liberal arts curriculum to train beginning as well as advanced students in the use of analytical tools. The economics curriculum also exposes students to the intellectual, historical, and institutional context of the discipline, integrating their study of economics with their liberal education as a whole.

Writing Proficiency Requirement

Students may take EC 396  or EC 397  to fulfill the writing proficiency requirement in the major.

Qualifications Required to Graduate with Department Honors

Departmental honors are decided by a vote of the faculty just prior to Commencement each year. The following guidelines are used to consider candidates:

• Students must achieve a grade point average of at least a 3.67 in all courses that count toward the major and concentration at the 200-level and above, including any statistics course substituted for EC 206 .
• Students must have demonstrated to the department faculty superior grasp of economic theory and its applications.
• Once requirements for the major and concentration have been met, students may elect to take additional courses without penalizing eligibility for honors.

Repeating Failed Courses

It is the department’s policy that students majoring or minoring in economics must receive at least a C- in every course taken toward the completion of the major/minor. Any student who fails to receive a grade of C- in more than two courses will not be permitted to continue in the major or minor. No course may be retaken more than once. For purposes of this policy, withdrawals beyond the seventh week will be considered as having taken the course.

Department Faculty

Associate Professor

Lydia P. Harris, chair (applied microeconomics)

Assistant Professors

Jack Carter, adviser in prelaw studies (law and economics, macroeconomics), Gina Shamshak (environmental economics, public finance)

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