|
The Harvard Student Petition
To: The Faculty Members of the Harvard
Economics Department
We, the undersigned, believe that Harvard has a responsibility to provide its
eight hundred introductory economics students with a more balanced
perspective than is currently offered in Social Analysis 10: Principles of
Economics, commonly known as Ec 10.
We are therefore delighted that Stephen Marglin, the Walter S. Barker
Professor of Economics, has proposed to teach a one-semester alternative
introductory microeconomics class. This proposed class will cover the same
material as the first semester of Ec 10 and use the same text as Ec 10 does,
but it will attempt a better balance and coverage of a broader spectrum of
views in the Readings/Workbook. It will also examine the assumptions of
economics critically, so that students can assess the limits as well as the
strengths of economics. Taken with the second semester of Ec 10, we believe
that students would receive a solid introduction to the principles of
economics.
We believe that a liberal arts education should not only teach students the
accepted modes of thinking, but also challenge students to think critically
and deeply about conventional truths. In the spirit of a liberal-arts
education, we urge the esteemed members of the Harvard Economics Department
to approve Professor Marglin's proposed course.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
|