T wice each week, semesterafter semester, approxi-mately 500 undergraduates

file noisily into Dale Hall 200, settleinto theater style seats, prop note-books on their knees and turn raptattention to a youthful, sandy-hairedprofessor whose topic could be thesupply and demand offootball tickets.

Directly across the lobby, in Dale211, the scene is duplicated by 400more students in a large group set-ting dominated by a lanky, beardeddynamo who looks like Abe Lincolnand talks like Alan Alda . He has beenknown to lecture on Oreo cookies .William M. "Will" Clark and Alex-

ander B. "Lex" Holmes are high onthe classroom popularity charts at theUniversity of Oklahoma - not be-cause they offer snap courses to themasses, but because they have trans-formed the once-dreaded subject ofeconomics into an exercise in rel-evancy .The student/teacher ratio in these

fast-paced sessions leaves little roomfor give and take ; that comes later inthe week in smaller discussion sec-tions. Class size, however, is not ahandicap in introductory economicsbut rather a conscious attempt to ex-pose the largest possible number ofstudents to master teachers .The large group arrangement is

part of an assault on economic illiter-acy being led by the faculty chairmanof the division, Alex J. Kondonassis, aDavid Ross Boyd professor who haswon enough teaching awards to rec-ognize a master when he sees one.

ECONOMICS

By CAROL J. BURR

"The reason for discussingeconomic issues is not to inspire a na-tional passion for bookkeeping but toinspire a national awareness of theconnection between economic andpolitical freedom ."

- William E. SimonA Time for Truth

When Kondonassis resumed thechairmanship in 1979 the had servedfor 10 years in the 1960s), he was dis-turbed by the lack of emphasis on in-troductory level instruction, in thetwo courses in the principles ofmacroand microeconomics and in economichistory, the courses that involve avery high percentage of non-economics majors ."We were assigning too many

teaching assistants," the Greek-bornKondonassis recalls . "Many wereforeign-born - not that there's any-thing wrong with that . I'm foreign-born, too . But many of them hadtrouble communicating."By going to the large-group format,

Kondonassis could give the division'sgraduate assistants more seasoningbefore assigning them to solo teach-ing duties . He also was giving Assis-tant Professor Clark and AssociateProfessor Holmes the opportunity toprove how good they really are.Clark credits his graduate school

experience at the University of Vir-ginia, watching nationally acclaimed

teacher Kenneth Elzinga withawakening him to the possibilities inlarge-group instruction ."He would go over and over the

most important points but alwaysfrom a different angle with a differentillustration," Clark explains . "It wasalmost like a night club show . He wastalking about serious things, but histiming was perfect, and his humorwas really funny. He was the best I'veever seen . I hope that some of thatrubbed off on me."Some members of his profession

look down on this teaching style,Clark admits . "They say,'Oh, this is asong-and-dance man,' but neitherHolmes nor I sacrifice content forshowmanship. However, if it comes toit," he adds quickly, "I'll do a littlesong and dance to regain the stu-dents' attention."

Kondonassis sees nothing wrongwith playing to the crowd in introduc-tory courses and disagrees with pro-fessors who refuse any compromise inclarifying economics for non-majors ."Too many students feel that

economics is uninteresting or just toohard," he contends . "Economics ma-jors will cut through the hard partand go on to more advanced courses.But most of the students in the prin-ciples courses aren't looking for anymore economics. You ought to simp-lify a little bit for them."

In his specialty of microeconomics,Holmes relates the shorter term,day-to-day economic issues to thealways-empty student pocketbook ."In my lecture the other day to 370

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students," he illustrates, "I pickedsomebody right out of the tenth rowand said, `You! What did you buy atthe grocery store yesterday?' Oreocookies. So we talked about Oreos .There's nothing very special aboutwhat economists do . You go to thegrocery store, and you buy Oreos orChips Ahoy . Deciding how many ofeach to buy - that's economics."Clark uses the same technique in

dealing with the larger economic is-sues in his macroeconomics course -how inflation affects tuition and theprice of stereos and cars - how un-employment affects chances of get-ting a job in the spring ."The classic textbook examples of

supply and demand are the minimumwage laws," he says, "but I invariablyget a bigger response in my classeswhen I talk about supply and demandin terms of football tickets, where theface value is really meaningless, andmarket price is determined by scalp-ers and people who want to buy. Nowthat students can relate to ."

enue product' and `elasticity of de-mand .' Economists know exactlywhat you're talking about, but thelayman doesn't know or care ."Kondonassis sees the jargon prob-

lem as an element in a nationwideeconomic illiteracy, which is a hin-drance to responsible citizenship . Hewould like to sell the State Regentsfor Higher Education on economics asa requirement for graduation fromcollege in the same category withU.S . history and government ."Television and the newspapers

have a great influence, because manycitizens don't fully understand whatis going on economically," Kondonas-sis contends . "If you don't know anybetter, you just have to take the re-porters at their word, which may ormay not be economically sound ."A politician can present any set of

facts in a variety of ways . He can say,`Good people, while I was in power,the GNP increased by 10 percent.' Ifyou know what the Gross NationalProduct is, if you can make the dis-

Making economic issues releoant to nearly 500 students in his macroeconomicsclass requires large-group teaching skills which are Will Clark's specialty .

Minimizing economic jargon inteaching at the basic level is difficultfor economists who go through asemi-Talmudic training period ofreading nothing but economics andtalking exclusively to economists .

"After three or four years," Clarksays, "all we can say is `marginal rev-

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tinction between `real' and `monetary'GNP, you can say, `OK, so it in-creased 10 percent. Now, let me lookat inflation - up 12 percent - inother words, negative growth .' Thoseare simple things ; they're not par-ticularly complicated, provided somecritical thinking is applied."

The major objective of the OUeconomists in the principles courses isto give students enough informationto read the newspaper or watch theevening news and be able to evaluatecritically the economic stories thatbombard them .

"I know that sometimes `theory'glazes people's eyes," Clark says, "butyou have to have a certain theoreticalbackground . Once you master theory,you are capable of analyzing a lot ofdifferent situations .""You are a better citizen if you read

critically," Holmes adds . "You don'thave to be cynical - that's differentfrom being critical - but you justcan't believe everything that comesdown the pike . You have to see theissue from incentives . Who has theincentive to say this or do that? If thispolicy comes about, who is the win-ner, and who is the loser?"While most OU undergraduates

terminate their economics training atthe introductory level, an increasingnumber of non-majors are going on tomore advanced courses with a facultypossessing impressive teaching andresearch credentials in a wide rangeof specialties . Total credit hour en-rollment this fall of 10,550 is upnearly 300 credit hours from 1982 .J. Kirker Stephens, who, along

with his fellow economics professorEden Yu, has received the OU Re-gents award for superior research andcreative activity, sees two majorreasons for the enrollment increase -an upsurge in all areas of businessadministration as a major and aheightened awareness by engineeringmajors and their advisers of the im-portance of economics to complementtheir technical training .

Assistant Professor Michael Muel-ler, a natural resource economist,agrees . "When we get an engineer, heis a very good, a very bright student."Mueller's colleague in energy eco-

nomics, Professor Donald A. Murry,believes that economists can make animportant contribution to the educa-tion of engineers. "The sort of thingseconomists are interested in are thesort of things industrial executivesare interested in, but the people inthe production departments are not.We tend to pick up engineers if theyare upward mobile, if they are goingon to advanced degrees - or if they

In addition to his large-group microeconomics class, Lex Holmes teaches a. sectionof honors students which he calls a "very bright, hard-charging group ."

want to broaden their sights ."While the division of economics is

heavily involved in providing servicecourses for majors from other de-partments - business, political sci-ence, fashion arts, engineering, jour-nalism, education, as well as satisfy-ing the arts and sciences socialstudies elective - its central task isto turn out skilled, employableeconomists for private business andindustry and for federal and stategovernmental agencies .Economics is unique in offering an

undergraduate degree program ineither business administration or inarts and sciences . On the master's de-gree level, students may follow thetraditional, theoretical, research-oriented track, leading to the Ph.D .,or they may elect a newer, terminalmaster's degree track along morepractical lines. This second track,managerial economics, focuses on theapplication of economics to problemsolving.This fall the division has 150

undergraduate economics majors, 15master's degree and 25 Ph.D . degreecandidates . If they follow the tradi-tion set by previous economics ma-jors, these students will include someof the University's brightest gradu-ates .

Each year economics boasts a large

number of honors graduates, boththose who have completed a pre-scribed "honors program" and thosewho have followed the general cur-riculum with overall grade averagesfrom 3.25 to 4 .0 . The 1981 Carl AlbertAward to the outstanding senior inarts and sciences went to aneconomics major, while the outstand-ing seniors in both business and artsand sciences in 1982 were economicsmajors following different bachelor'sdegree tracks . From 1978 to 1982,four of the five regional finalists inthe Rhodes scholarship competitionhave been OU economics majors .The 150 economists who have

earned Ph.D.s at OU are occupyingacademic positions in colleges anduniversities throughout the UnitedStates and abroad, in governmentagencies, private "think tanks" andin business and industry . For in-stance, Taiwan's chief economist anda former senior staff economist on theCouncil of Economic Advisers to theU.S . President both hold Ph .D . de-grees in economics from OU .One of the more recent develop-

ments in graduate study is the con-centration in energy economics atboth the master's and Ph .D . levelswhich is being conducted in conjunc-tion with the programs ofthe new OUEnergy Center . The concentration

utilizes the individual expertise ofMurry, Mueller, Professor David A .Huettner and Assistant ProfessorLarry S. Eubanks in the economicevaluation of energy questions .Murry specializes in policy ques-

tions, for instance, such as the short-term issue of whether a particular in-dustry should buy coal or gas to pro-duce heat for production purposes,and how that decision will influencepricing and marketability of the pro-duct . Mueller, on the other hand,deals with the use of scarce resourcesto meet needs of the population ."A lot has been written," Mueller

says, "about the limits of economicgrowth, that we are going to polluteourselves to death. Those issues havebeen raised by environmentalists, notby economists . I try to provide eco-nomic analysis of those environ-mental questions."Students in energy economics seek

employment in both the private andpublic sectors. In energy industryplanning departments, they areequipped to deal with project assess-ment, market structure, pricing, fore-casting of demand and consumption,evaluation of governmental reg-ulations, etc. On the public side, theycan qualify for state and federalagencies in planning, forecasting andgeneral staff work, writing andevaluating legislation and developingpolicy alternatives .But no matter how expert they may

become in their areas of specializa-tion, the young economists are taughtthat sometimes it is very difficult toexplain the analysis they have doneto those who make the decisions."We try to explain to our students,"

Mueller cautions, "that sometimeseconomists don't. have the theory orthe data or the intelligence to comeup with the economic answers to somequestions. We have to teach themthat economic values are not the onlyones that are brought to bear in mak-ing decisions . There are politicalrealities, distributional issues andsocietal value systems."An elective energy concentration,

which is taught by Murry, also isavailable in the MBA (Master ofBus-iness Administration) program, inaddition to the required aggregateeconomics taught by Kondonassis."Frankly, there are a lot of MBAs

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fresh out of college," Murry says, "andthey tend to look alike . Those whohave had the energy concentration dovery well in the interviews . Theyaren't total virgins to the energy bus-iness. They have an edge."Maintaining an edge is also a con-

cern to those who already have jobsand feel a need to upgrade theiracademic training . Since returning tothe campus is impractical in most in-stances, the economics division hasdeveloped the off-campus AdvancedProgram in Economics, leading to anMA, which has been hailed by theglobal student body for its high qual-ity and innovative nature .This non-resident, 32-credit-hour

master's degree is offered in inten-sive, one-week sessions, each worthtwo credit hours. A majority of the18-member economics teaching fac-ulty has been involved in theseadult education courses in places asclose as Lawton, Oklahoma, and asdistant as Dhahran, Saudi Arabia,where an especially strong program isunder way for 100 at ARAMCO.Closer to home, a privately funded

OU program is promoting economicliteracy among college students andthe general population through dis-cussion of public policy issues facingthe American enterprise system . TheInstitute of American Enterprise wasfounded in 1980 with Holmes as di-rector, Clark as assistant director andKondonassis and Business Adminis-tration Dean Lawrence E. McKibbinrounding out the committee.The most visible of the institute's

activities is a fall debate on a specificpublic policy question between twoeminent authorities, who also teach atwo-day class for credit . Holmes takespride in the academic integrity of thedebates, which feature strong pro-ponents on each side .

"If you don't put up a straw man,"he insists, "nobody can complainabout the results ."Two years ago the debate focused

on environmental issues with BarryCommoner on one side and on theother side a noted governmenteconomic consultant, Ralph d'Arge .Last year the flat tax proposal wasdebated by one of its authors, RobertE . Hall of Stanford, and William D .Nordhaus, former chairman of theCouncil of Economic Advisers .28

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The institute also publishes a quar-terly newsletter dealing in depth withpublic policy issues, which is the workof Associate Professor Marilyn K.Flowers, a specialist in public financeand public sector decision making .The OU economists see the sec-

ondary public schools as the most ob-vious and most promising area foroutreach programs in economic liter-acy. Kondonassis will go so far as tostate that it is impossible to teach so-cial studies today on any level - no-tably history, government and geog-raphy - without economic content.Unfortunately, however, educationmajors may avoid any exposure toeconomics simply by satisfying theirsocial sciences requirements with awide range of other subjects .Stephens agrees that teacher prep-

aration is often neglected. "Whethereconomics is taught as a separatecourse in high school or as a part ofcivics doesn't matter too much, but todo any good you have to have teacherswho are themselves economically lit-erate. We can help through in-servicetraining, summer institutes and thelike, outside the traditional on-campus, during-the-day, degree-seeking framework."

Kirker Stephens is one of two econo-mists with regents' research awards .

Veteran division chairman Alex Kondonassis takes pride in the diversity oJ -economic philosophies represented on the present 18-member teaching faculty.

Energy economists Don Murry, left, David Huettner, Michael Mueller and LarryEubanks will interact with interdisciplinary programs in the Energy Center .

Promoting economic literacythrough the Institute of AmericanEnterprise has had one unexpectedresult . Holmes and Clark have be-come media personalities on localtelevision newscasts as "economicanalysts ." Holmes is on call for com-mentaries on KWTV Channel 9 inOklahoma City, while Clark appearson KTVY Channel 4's evening news,which is co-anchored by his wife, OUjournalism alumna Linda Cava-naugh. They are encouraged that lo-cal stations would adopt this unusualpractice out of concern for an accurateassessment of subjects that are some-times misinterpreted by journalists ."When people put out information

(on public policy issues) that is wrong,it's not a conspiracy," Holmes con-tends. "They just don't know any bet-ter. Economists are not smarter thananybody else, but we do know how toapproach the problem methodologi-cally. We know where to find thesources that give us the answers ."Members of the economics faculty

are well-known on the civic club cir-cuit and serve as "unpaid staff' ad-visers on countless task forces andexpenditure councils and appear reg-ularly at budgetary and legislativehearings . They look upon these extracurricular duties as opportunities to

put their expertise into practice andas a part of the responsibility of theacademic community.On campus, economists appear

regularly on the program for thespring alumni All-Star University .When Holmes and Clark, for in-stance, stage a debate for the oldgrads, they can approach the issuehonestly, from opposite ends of thepolitical spectrum . Their status asagreeable adversaries - Clark theconservative and Holmes the liberal- is neither unique nor accidentalwithin the economics faculty.Kondonassis, who joined the OU

faculty in 1958 with degrees fromDePauw and Indiana universities, isaware of the charges of excessliberalism which were directed at thedepartment during the 1950s. He hasno fears that the complaint can bemade today."The department can safely be said

to be in balance in the differenteconomic philosophies of the faculty,"he says confidently . "It wasn't likethat years back, but it is now."Stephens, who admits to moderate

supply-side leanings, exposes his stu-dents to a full range of mainstreameconomic viewpoints . "We teach peo-ple certain methods of thinking, waysto analyze problems that are almost

apolitical, a matter of logic andanalysis, not to take automaticallywhat is said, but to stop and think, `Isit reasonable? If not, where can I goand check it?' "Mueller credits Kondonassis' lead-

ership with enabling the departmentto maintain different viewpointsagreeably. "Of course this depart-ment could easily deteriorate into dif-ferent factions along several lines,particularly on political lines . To avery large degree, the reason we canbe so diverse and still be a compatiblegroup is because of Alex's leader-ship ."Stephens judges the character of

the department as right for its parentinstitution . "One way to make a bigname nationally as a department is tobecome known as the center of a par-ticular viewpoint," he explains, "theclassic example being the Universityof Chicago under Milton Friedman,the monetarism center for a numberof years. There probably were peoplethere with other views, but you didn'thear much about them . At a schoollike the University of Oklahoma, it isimportant to have a variety of view-points on the faculty and to presentthese to the students ."There are other single-view de-

partments with national prominence,such as the Hoover Institution atStanford serving as the conservativeanswer to the liberals' Brookings In-stitute in Washington, D.C . As oneeconomist remarked, "They are sortof rump governments for the groupout of power. When the Republicansare out, their economists go toHoover; when the Democrats are out,they all go to Brookings."

But the OU professors feel stronglythat the University of Oklahomashould not be identified as espousinga particular view or putting forward aparticular policy . At the same time,they do not shy away from givingtheir students their views on publicissues, being careful, of course, toseparate economic theory from per-sonal opinion.

"If my students completely forgetwhat I think, that's all right withme," Holmes insists . "If they agreewith me, that's fine . If they disagree,that's even better, because then theyare thinking and talking about

. economics."

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