The Waynesburg University Business Department will have a new economics class for the 2017 Fall Semester.  The course is entitled Economics Policy Seminar, course code ECO 395. According to Waynesburg economics professors, one of the main reasons for adding the class was to make it easier for students to obtain an economics minor.

Adding the class to the Waynesburg schedule was a collaborative process between the interim Business Department Chair Adam Jack, Provost Dana Baer and Professor of Economics Dr. Lawrence Stratton.

The process to add the class was pretty easy, according to Jack.

“Dr. Stratton proposed the ECO course and I approved it,” said Jack.

Several students played a significant role in the start-up of the course, as they approached Stratton about adding it.

“It emerged when some students expressed interest in having an economics minor,” said Stratton.

An economics minor at Waynesburg requires 21 credits to graduate, with most of those credits currently included as part of the required courseload for almost every business student.  The four required courses that most business students currently must take are Introduction to Macroeconomics, Introduction to Microeconomics, Principles of Financial Accounting and Principles of Managerial Accounting. To obtain a minor, three additional Economics classes are required.

With the addition of Economics Policy Seminar and Money and Banking that is already offered, students would only need only one more class to obtain a minor in economics. The remaining class could be another economics class at another university or a different class at Waynesburg.

The new course will build on both the microeconomics and macroeconomics classes, which are prerequisites. This course will examine the parameters of contemporary fiscal monetary and international economic policy debates and the major theorists and political figures who are engaged in the economic issues.

Stratton said that a number of his economic students wanted to learn more about the subject after completing the prerequisites.

“A couple students wanted a course that went deeper in economics,” said Stratton.

The class will use two books: “Economic Issues and Policy” by Jacqueline Murray Brux, as well as “Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined” written by Nicholas Wapshott.

At this time, the class is only a special topics class, but Stratton believes the class could be added to the schedule cycling on a two-year basis. The class currently has 14 of the 18 seats filled.

“I am truly looking forward to teaching the course,” said Stratton. “I also look forward to solid economic debate between the students.”

Starting next fall, Economics Policy Seminar will be taught every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in Room 218 of the Eberly Library.