Economics Department
Welcome to the homepage of the Department of Economics at Eastern Illinois University. This site contains information about the department, the economics program, faculty, and other sites of interest.
25 October 2006:
François de la Rochefoucauld once wrote "the only thing constant in life is change." We keep changing. This year the department is missing Professor Minh Dao, who is on a leave of absence, studying and lecturing in Ottawa, Ontario. We have welcomed Ms. Janet Harris, formerly of Indiana State University, to our faculty ranks. Along with former ISU faculty Don Jordan and long-time student favorite Wild Bill Thompson, the department is taking on all the best qualities of Terre Haute, the Garden City of Indiana.
Over the past year, the department undertook an extensive external review of our programs. The review went remarkably well. We would have had a hard time writing a more glowing report ourselves. In response to the external reviewer抯 suggestion of adding courses to our curriculum, Dr. Grant will be offering a Game Theory course this coming spring (Great Nash抯 Ghost!) and faculty are working on developing courses in Experimental Economics (a.k.a. "Fun with Electrodes") and an Economics of Sport course ("A hotdog at Wrigley costs HOW MUCH?")
Along those lines, the Department of Economics undertook a diligent search to fill two faculty positions as we sought to bolster and expand our course offerings. In the end the positions went unfilled. We are taking up the search again this year with an eye to attracting an instructor specializing in Industrial Organization, hopefully with a secondary area of expertise in Public Finance.
I let time slip away this term before attending to my web-page update. EIU has already hosted its Fall Career Network Day, Homecoming was just last weekend, and Parents Weekend was before that. Nonetheless, here are some useful related links. Alumni seeking other employment opportunities may still make use of Eastern抯 Career Services. In addition, all alumni are encouraged to keep in touch with EIU抯 Alumni Office.
Thursday, 26 October, Professor Ghent will be attending the Missouri Valley Economics Association meetings in Minneapolis, MN. Any alums who are out that way (who can get their cars started) and want to meet up with her should contact the department via e-mail economic@eiu.edu or telephone 217-581-2719. Conspicuously absent from the MVEA trip this year are our graduate students. We have been shepherding our graduate students to their first professional meetings for many years now, some have even presented at the MVEA meetings. This year, the long drive and short departmental budget rendered our annual graduate student trip to the MVEA meetings prohibitively expensive. We hope Dr. Ghent will be successful in persuading the MVEA to return to a closer meeting site next year.
Professor Mason is at it again. He invites you all to attend the Charleston Community Theater's production of Stones in His Pockets at the Tarble Arts Center 27 ?29 Oct. and 3 - 5 Nov. He is one of two actors in this comedy centered around a Hollywood movie company filming in Ireland. The two actors play 16 different parts. In the Spring, he will again be let loose in the Chicago Loop to harry those lucky 10 students chosen to meet with real world economists working among Chicago's many financial institutions and to meet, greet and eat with as many alumni as he can attract to the annual Chicago Alumni dinner. Watch this space for updates of the Chicago trip or feel free to contact Dr. Mason directly: timason@eiu.edu
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