Get Herald RSSA $10 million gift from William Rhodes '57, senior vice chairman of Citigroup and a former University trustee, will establish the Rhodes Center for International Economics at the Watson Institute for International Studies. The gift is the most recent gesture of support for Brown's growing research and teaching in business, entrepreneurship and economics.
The Corporation last weekend accepted the gift to fund the center and create an endowed professorship in international trade and finance. The center will promote "first-rate" research on international economic issues, particularly those that are relevant to policy, according to Professor of Economics Ross Levine, who helped draft the proposal for the gift. The Rhodes Center, which will be located in the Watson Institute, where Rhodes is a board member, will also support academic conferences and visiting professors.
"Economics touches on the lives of many people," Levine said. "If we're teaching students to prepare for the world and take jobs in the world, knowledge of international economics will be of great use to them."
The establishment of the Rhodes Center goes hand-in-hand with student interest in taking finance and economics classes within the context of a liberal arts education, Levine said.
Student interest in economics has been rising consistently over the past five years, according to Professor of Economics Andrew Foster, the department chair. Foster said enrollments in economics classes are up 25 percent from last year, partly because there is a renewed "general sense that economics has something to say about world issues."
Foster said the Department of Economics has changed significantly over the last decade and no longer keeps to itself on campus. The increase in interdisciplinary programs that include economics is not only due to interest from other departments that want to be engaged, he said, but also to faculty within the department who are interested in disciplines outside of economics.
"Economics is not just about business and money," Foster said. "It's also important in areas like haealth care and international affairs. And this idea has become broadly recognized."
Foster pointed to recognition that the most interesting economic matters "involve issues that aren't traditional economic issues." In addition, Foster said there is a sense that economists are more directly involved in policy than they were in the past.
This fits well with the objectives of the new center, which will bring in more policy-oriented economists, according to Watson Institute Associate Director Geoffrey Kirkman '91.
"Our mandate is to influence policy," Kirkman said. "Our hope is that the center will channel academic resources to solve real policy problems."
The Rhodes gift is part of a larger trend of donations and grants to the University's economics and entrepreneurship programs. The University accepted $3.5 million last weekend for its Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship program, an interdisciplinary program launched last year.
In October, the University accepted a $15 million gift from the C.V. Starr Foundation to provide endowment funds for the COE program, and in December, the University accepted a $2 million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to expand entrepreneurship education and activity on campus.
The Rhodes Center will interact closely with the COE program and the Department of Economics, as "everything in economics that we study has an international aspect," said Maria Carkovic, COE's administrative director.
Carkovic said students in COE study economic frameworks, organizational studies and technology management. "None of these aspects would survive on its own without a view of the global economy," she said. "I just see a natural fit between what we study and what the Rhodes Center will be doing."
The COE program already offers several courses that touch on international issues, Carkovic said. In addition, the program offers an international internship, in which students work in companies across India.
The Rhodes Center offers an opportunity to bring together students focused on getting a job on Wall Street and students concerned about poverty around the world, Levine said.
"It would be very nice in terms of cross-fertilization of views if these groups were to intermingle more," Levine said. "The disciplines underlying their interests are much closer than these groups tend to believe or exploit."
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