Before coming to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I had general interest in the area of business but did not want to commit to administration. My freshmen year, I entered as a Marketing major with little to no idea where I wanted to go. After taking microeconomics my freshmen year, I quickly realized that I had some interest in pursuing Economics as a degree. I am here to debunk some of the myths that surround being an economics major at Grove City College.
First off, I want to send some praise to the great professors that have made my four years a part of the Economics department so enjoyable. The first myth is that all the economics professors are boring and have little to no care for the students. This could not be more false as the economics professors have continually tried to make curriculum more interesting and more applicable. The professors treat their students like family, inviting classes over for dinner or the Herbeners’ famous spring picnic.
Another myth is that all economics majors do is math. This is wrong, especially in the Grove City curriculum. The economics program at Grove City approaches economics from a logical and mostly narrative understanding of human interaction. The last myth is maybe the most common. Many people will say that in order to succeed in the economics department at Grove City you must have prior knowledge of economics. This could not more wrong, and I would even go as far as saying it is better to go in with no exposure. Austrian economics is at some points abstract and helps to go in with an open mind. Overall, my experience in the economics department has been enjoyable and prepared me for my current job. If you are thinking about becoming an economics major, I recommend talking to a current major or one of the many professors.
Welcome to the Grove City College Student Spotlight, where we sit down with Grove City students and converse about their college experiences. On today’s episode, we sit down with Tegan Truitt. Tegan is a senior Economics and Philosophy major, the chaplain of the Adelphikos, the captain of the Ultimate Frisbee team, and co-captain of the debate team. We talk about his experience as a student in Oxford, why Grove City’s Economics program is different from other schools, fraternity life, evangelizing through Frisbee, and the story of his baptism at Grove City local church, Grace Anglican.
You can listen to this or other episodes at either of the links below on your streaming platform of choice.
Disclaimer:
This podcast is a student project and the views represented do not reflect those of Grove City College.
Tuesday, Sept. 25 marked the first “Freedom Readers” event of the year sponsored by The Center for Vision and Values, Grove City College’s own conservative think tank. This month, Professor Richard Kocur (business department) spoke on the healthcare industry, specifically tackling the “Medicare for All” movement popularized most notably by Bernie Sanders.
Professor Kocur is not only personally interested in this subject matter, but he also focuses much of his independent research on this topic. Kocur started his lecture by reviewing the history of healthcare in the United States, then broke down the popular movement seen today and spoke on the implications of such a system in the United States. Kocur discussed how this would not work here due to myriad factors, and explained how those implications would affect the three major players in these scenarios: payers, providers, and patients. While some countries do have single payer systems, Kocur noted that the tax rates are significantly higher there to compensate for the costs, and as a result, certain parts of these nations’ economies and even their own healthcare systems suffer from such a large influx of participants that take part in the system.
Finally, Kocur went on to talk about market-based ideas that the United States could possibly explore to remedy the situation, citing direct patient contracts, health savings account expansion, and the ability to purchase healthcare across state lines as potential viable options.
The Center for Vision and Values is an organization on Grove City College’s campus that employs student fellows in the fields of research and marketing to help promote their events and to aid in producing scholarly content for the organization and their partners. If you would like to learn more about the Center, head over to http://www.visionandvalues.org/, or check out the student-run news site “Checkpoint” at https://www.checkpointnews.org/.
Presenters and hosts gather for a group photo at lunch on Saturday
On Saturday, February 27th, 20 undergraduate, graduate and professor level economics scholars gathered at Grove City College to present their latest research. The Austrian Student Scholars Conference was inaugurated at GCC in 2004 by Economics Department Chair Jeffery Herbener, formerly the director of the Austrian Scholars Conference at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. The ASSC serves a similar role to the Mises Institute’s ASC (now AERC), providing a forum for students of the “Austrian School” of economics, associated with Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Israel Kirzner and Joe Salerno. However, what makes the ASSC unique is that, as the name suggests, it is intended for undergrads and graduate students to get their first experience in presenting papers and engaging in discourse with fellow students.
This presents a very special opportunity for the serious undergraduate scholar, especially Grove City students. As part of the ECON 420 ‘Economics Colloquium’ capstone class, every economics major is required to present a paper their senior year, but some students write and present papers even sooner in their careers. At this year’s conference, of the 10 Grove City students who presented two were juniors and one a freshman. Other presenters included undergraduates from Ferris State University, Ph.D. students from Auburn University, George Mason University and the University d’Angers along with a few faculty members from various institutions.
Dr. McCaffrey speaks Friday night
The fun kicked off with great conversation between the different groups represented at the conference over a delicious meal of salmon and pilaf on Friday night. The evening’s keynote lecture, named in honor of former economics department chair Hans Sennholz, was delivered by Dr. Matthew McCaffrey from England’s University of Manchester who spoke about the economics of social entrepreneurship. He presented a convincing argument that social enterprises, which provide social good in the context of business (such as TOMS shoes), can deliver aid more efficiently than conventional non-profits or the government. This is due, he said, to business firms being subject to economic calculation which forces them to weigh profit and loss. By weighing these, the social enterprise can be more effective than a traditional charity that just has money given to it.
Showtime for Presenters
Dr. Jeff Herbener introduces GCC’s Susannah Estoker before her presentation
Saturday morning marked the beginning of a full day of paper reading and discussion. The sessions were organized into 1.5 hour blocks, with three papers presented in each. Sessions sorted papers into common themes which this year included Domestic Policies; Technology, Modeling and Economics; Ethics and Economics; International Policies; Labor and Wages; and Money Production. After the papers were presented, with each presenter allocated 20 minutes, there followed 30 minutes of discussion about the papers where listeners could ask questions to clarify points, or make suggestions on issues raised in the papers that could be further investigated.
After two series of sessions it was time for lunch and then on to more papers. By the end of the day, topics including Social Security, labor policy, the Gold Standard and international development had all been discussed. This diversity of topics made the day a quick introduction to serious academic thought on a variety of issues.
Judging
Before the papers were presented, they were read and judged by a panel of Grove City College faculty for the Richard E. Fox Prize. First place (with a $1,000 cash prize) went to Ph.D. student Karl-Friedrich Israel from the University d’Angers, while 2nd and 3rd prizes went to two GCC seniors, David Werner and Jon Nelson. Israel’s paper: “Modern Monetary Policy Evaluation and the Lucas Critique” addressed Robert Lucas’s argument that the results of changes in economic policy can not be adequately predicted using economic modeling. David Werner presented an overview of the effects the California Gold Rush of 1849 had on the monetary supply in his paper: “Gold: Rushing and Minting”, and Jon Nelson’s “The Economics of Science, Technology and Government Intervention” assessed some effects that governmental subsidization of applied research can have on the economy.
L-R: David Werner, Karl-Friedrich Israel, Jon NelsonDr. Brandly makes a point
After the presentation of the prizes, Dr. Mark Brandly of Ferris State University delivered the Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture on “Mises, Calculation and Government Land Ownership”. His recounting of how he came to economics after majoring in math in college and working in the petroleum industry had the crowd laughing. He also managed to make the main topic of his talk: explaining how the government’s ownership of land affects investment decisions in harvesting natural resources, accessible to audience members less familiar with economic theory.
It was a busy weekend, but a fun one, and a great opportunity to meet students from other institutions. The Austrian Student Scholars Conference is just one of many ways Grove City provides unique experiences to its students.
