An upward trend in the number of students enrolled in economics courses and an unusually large number of economics professors currently on leave have produced substantial shortcomings within the department this year.
Pressures within the understaffed department have been pronounced this semester, as five full-time professors are on sabbatical leave. Intermediate and upper-level courses currently average 40 students per section, nearly double the ideal enrollment figure, according to acting Economics Department Chair Thomas Downes. The faculty shortage, coupled with the general increase in class size, has caused distress among many students seeking smaller, more intimate class settings.
"Having to compete with classmates just to get into a course at a university which fosters a non-competitive background is crazy," said junior Manijeh Azmoodeh, a board member of the Tufts Economics Society and economics major. "We came to Tufts for a liberal education where we could have a close relationship with professors and we're not getting that," she said.
Downes cited the shift in international relations majors towards the economics clusters and the increase in high demand courses taught by popular new instructors as explanations for the recent rise in course enrollment. The increase in business and finance-related employment opportunities in today's global market has also affected student interest in economics classes.
"The growth in enrollment in economics courses is a national trend that is even more rapid at schools like Tufts which do not have an undergraduate business program," Downes said. "We're trying to serve an ever-increasing number of students, and it's very difficult with the relatively small full-time faculty and secretarial assistance that we have," he said.
Over-enrollment in courses has resulted in logistical problems as well. "It's definitely not a good learning environment when there are students piling up in the back of the room because there aren't enough seats for them," sophomore Tina Marsh said. "The size of these classes is definitely hurting my learning experience."
"I can't remember a single upper-level course I've taken here that hasn't been in high demand," said senior Mike Champion, the co-president of the Tufts Economics Society. Champion also mentioned that students who are allotted poor registration times often have difficulty enrolling in many of their important classes. Economics 161 and 162, the international trade and finance courses, are among the hardest to get into, due to their high demand.
In addition to overcrowded classes, some students have criticized the large portion of part-time faculty in the economics department. This poses a particular problem for economics majors seeking advisors, since potential advisors must be full-time faculty members at Tufts.
"I've switched advisors three times because they keep leaving or going on leave," said senior Debra Steinberg. " I've just come to accept that as one of the annoyances within the department."
Students have noted that the frequent departure of part-time faculty creates a learning gap as students move from introductory to advanced courses, often with little constancy in professors teaching those courses. "I understand the difficulty in hiring a full-time staff because they have to be tenured, which is a long process; but, at the same time, I feel a certain amount of unease that I'm not getting the most out of the teaching," said sophomore Trung Lu.
Downes was sympathetic to student concerns regarding the shortage of available advisors and full-time professors, but he said that maintaining a large, full-time faculty was difficult. "Given the constraints under which the University operates, it is necessary to hire part-time professors to teach courses, and the nature of part-time staffing is that there is turn-over," he said.
Downes also pointed out the importance of professors taking leave to expand on their professional research. "Faculty members can bring their research experience into classrooms, which is crucial for the intellectual life of the institution," he said.
Some students and faculty members fear that the recent strains on the department have translated to fewer opportunities for professors to pursue their work outside of the classroom.
"Having such large classes not only makes the education impersonal, but also puts more pressure on faculty members who should have more time for research," said Azmoodeh.
Steps are being taken to alleviate some of the problems caused by understaffing and high enrollment. In an attempt to fulfill the needs of students taking economics courses past the introductory level, the department currently offers the largest number of intermediate macro and microeconomics sections in its history. Furthermore, the department is seeking to fill one full-time and one year-long position opening by fall 2001.
Despite this effort to expand the number of core sections, a large number of students remain dissatisfied with the lack of variety of courses offered, citing the absence of finance, accounting, and business-related courses in the curriculum. "The fact that there are no specific finance courses reduces the credibility of the Tufts diploma," said graduate student Shyam Shanker, who was also an undergraduate economics major at Tufts.
Many of the upper-level courses which require modest student-professor ratios continue to face problems with overcrowding, particularly because these seminar-type 100-level courses involve a substantial amount of written papers and oral presentations.
"It's important to keep classes at a scale where students have the opportunity to write," said Professor Anna Harman, who divides her teaching duties between Tufts and MIT. "Economists who can write are in much more demand today," she said. Despite the importance of developing communication skills, professors who teach the upper-level seminars have been forced to modify their teaching methods to accommodate the oversized classes.
"We want our students to be at the forefront of their fields, and that means using the University's resources in the best possible way," Professor Yannis Ioannides said. "Unfortunately, we are strapped because the classes are much too large for the resources available, and I've had to abandon a number of newer, more creative teaching techniques," he said.
Ioannides stressed his hope for at least a 25 percent increase in faculty over the next several years in order to ensure that students receive the personal attention they need in order to excel in advanced level courses. However, such an increase would likely involve the redistribution of resources within the University, which is an administrative issue.
"The success of the claim for better staffing depends on how students want to represent themselves as conveyed through the representation of faculty," Professor Dan Richards said.
The student-run Tufts Economics Society is in the process of gathering opinion on the issue and is discussing a possible petition to lobby for more professors and smaller classes within the department.
"There will have to be a large effort on the part of students to say to upper-level administrators that this is a large concern," said Champion.
