I started out teaching ECON 201 in the Fall of 1967 to 500 undergraduates
Over the years that's more than doubled
Now I'm teaching over 1000 every Fall Semester
I'm teaching it as though this will be the last course a student takes
in the principles of microeconomics.
What I want them to see is that ECON is a way of thinking about the world,
Partly through a focus on the hard core of economic principles
Partly by trying to illustrate them with examples...
If I'm teaching the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility
I use an example my niece having a dish of ice cream...
[Student] He kept on offering her ice cream, and each time he offered it,
she was less and less happy with each consecutive scoop.
I thought that was completely completely relatable and made
the concept a lot easier to understand.
[Student] Sitting down the first day of class
I was immediately enthralled.
He's very knowledgeable and passionate about what he teaches
Before I took the class, everyone was saying "You must take a class with Professor Elzinga,"
because he's written this great mystery novel, he's famous...
Under the pen name of Marshall Jevons
my former colleague and dear friend William Breit and I
have co-authored 3 mystery novels in which an economist
is the central figure and solves the crime
using economic analysis.
We had done academic articles and books before so we were used to being co-authors,
and now our four Marshall Jevons novels
are assigned reading material in economics classes
all over the country.
I want the students in the large lecture
to understand that if they want to see me, they can, they may have to wait a while
but I want the student who's been sitting there for
thirty minutes to know that I will stay around
until I've seen all the students.
[Student] Immediately you form a connection
He is a very personable man, he is very kind, he's a mentor.
A lot of my time is spent with students talking about career opportunities
The level of technical knowledge of the discipline that they take from here
is really quite amazing,
and so our graduates are highly sought after for
graduate schools, not just in economics but in Law and Medicine.
Because of the number of students, there's no one room where they can all take the test,
so they are all spread all around the grounds.
If anybody gets a perfect score on the final tonight,
that'd be great, and I would love to meet you and take you out to lunch or dinner.
And if anybody misses every question? I would like to meet you too, same offer would hold!
The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility
doesn't really fit the way I view the classroom when I start in the fall
I'm still nervous again, I want to improve the course.
Even after all these years, I haven't lost my passion for teaching.
Thank you very much for your time this semester! [Applause]