The Start of a Trend?

The University of Southern Mississippi, according to Inside Higher Education, has proposed to eliminate its economics department in response to the economic downturn in the state. The University has been forced to reduce its budget by $11-12 million and economics is one of the departments that is being considered for elimination. The university is planning to eliminate 12 tenured or tenure track positions - three quarters of the reductions are in the department of economics.

The head of the local American Association of University Professors chapter commented “I’m just sort of baffled. It seems to me similar to not having an English Department or a biology department. Here we are in the worst economic mess in 70 years, and to not give our students a chance to understand their own personal economic situation -- their finances -- and understand what some of the remedies are that are being talked about by the president and Congress and state legislators, I think is a shame." That assumes of course that the economics faculty serves the role that the professor claims it does.