economics

Alumna Speaks in Mumbai on the Value of the Liberal Arts

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Hema Shroff Patel '86
Hema Shroff Patel ’86

The Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) invited Hema Shroff Patel ’86 to speak at a college fair in Mumbai, India. The Indian students attending the fair were potentially interested in attending colleges in the GLCA, including Kalamazoo College. Patel spoke to them about her liberal arts education experience and how it led her to a life in Mumbai as a businesswoman. She had special praise for Kalamazoo College.

Patel had planned on attending the University of Michigan to earn a degree in economics, but she began her freshman year after the semester’s start at U of M. Her solution was to begin her studies at K, with its later start date due to the quarter system, and then transfer. Patel hadn’t counted on falling in love with K.

“I ended up spending the four best years of my life at K,” Patel told GLCA members and students. At K, she learned how to be flexible and adaptable, she said. Patel studied economics, political science, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. She learned how to view opportunities from many different perspectives, how to find innovative solutions, and how to work with people from varied cultural backgrounds.

Her skills and education came together into a textile and weaving business called Amba that Patel began in Mumbai in 1999. Born in the United States, she moved to India 22 years ago to join her family and establish her business of traditional forms of weaving, block printing, and eco-friendly natural dyeing. Amba is a social entrepreneurship that supports craft heritage in rural India.

“I marvel at how much I have used my liberal arts education in textile revival,” Patel said. “I use my communication skills with people of many different backgrounds. I interact with weavers who speak no English. I apply political science when I apply for grants, and economics and finance in running my business. A liberal arts education opens doors to the global village our world has become.”

K Economics Professor Publishes Third Edition of Textbook

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Professor of Economics Ahmed Hussen has published the third edition of his textbook–Principles of Environmental Economics and Sustainability: An Integrated Economic and Ecological Approach (Routledge, September 20, 2012).

New chapters in the book cover the economics of climate change, the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services, “green” accounting and alternative economic and social indicators of sustainability, the business case for environmental sustainability, and an appendix that provides an historical account of the development of ecological economics.

K Economics Professor Advocates Long-Range Municipal Planning

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“Buffeted But Not Broken: Kalamazoo’s Five-Year Fiscal Plan” (by Kathy Jessup) describes the origin and development of the city’s long-range planning process, one that contains a further horizon than typical fiscal plans of other cities. Kalamazoo’s decision to engage in longer range planning has been invaluable in response to the economic downtown. Professor of Economics Hannah McKinney first proposed the idea of the Five-Year Fiscal Plan in 2005, when she served as the city’s mayor. McKinney has worked with the National League of Cities and champions the idea of pushing out financial planning horizons in order to better predict and manage both growth and downturns. Jessup’s article appears in the Michigan Municipal League’s magazine, The Review, and a longer version will come out this fall in the International City Managers Association’s publication.

Kalama-Raptors

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It’s no surprise that Associate Professor of Economics Chuck Stull, like most of his faculty colleagues, has a wide-ranging liberal arts-ish curiosity and sense of wonder. His biology and ornithology interests were piqued recently by a successful Red-Tailed Hawk predation of a Quad squirrel, which Stull managed to capture on camera.

In late December, the Kalamazoo Gazette carried an article about a Snowy Owl taking residence at the Battle Creek/Kalamazoo International Airport. Turns out, this year is an irruption of Snowy Owls, one of the largest on record. Often, Snowy Owls will take up residence near airports, which remind them of their tundra hunting grounds. The owl at the Kalamazoo airport died, most likely of starvation. Such an occurrence is sad, but not surprising. Up to 70 percent of the raptor offspring perish during their first winter—many from starvation. The hawk Professor Stull photographed may have better luck if he or she keeps in mind the campus’ squirrel-stocked Quad.

Professor Dorrien Delivers Speech on Economics, Ethics, and Democracy

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Professor Emeritus of Economics Phil Thomas enjoys his retirement in Northport, Michigan. He also keeps Kalamazoo College informed of events that may be of interest to K alumni in northern Michigan. One such event is Northport Trinity Church’s eighth annual Peace Lecture, which this year features former Kalamazoo College Professor of Religion Gary Dorrien (who currently teaches at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University).

Dorrien will speak on Saturday evening, June 2, at 7 PM, and on Sunday morning, June 3, at 11 AM. The theme of his talks will be “Economic Crisis, Social Ethics, and Economic Democracy.” Dorrien is the author of 14 books and some 250 articles that range across the fields of ethics, social theory, theology, philosophy, politics, and history.

Student Researches American Volley Ball Coaches Association

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Colleen Leonard class of 2012
Colleen Leonard ’12

Colleen Leonard ’12 examines results from the first-ever salary survey conducted by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) in the February/March 2012 issue of Coaching Volleyball, an AVCA publication.

She drew valuable conclusions from coaches at all levels of NCAA competition for “Money Talks: AVCA Salary Survey Analysis,” an article she researched and wrote as part of her Senior Individualized Project at K.

Colleen is an economics major with minors in math and art from Mason, Mich. who studied abroad in Strasbourg, France and interned with AFLAC in East Lansing. She was an outside hitter on the Hornet volleyball team for four years, earning All-MIAA First Team honors as a junior and senior, Second Team as a sophomore. She also traveled to China with her Hornet team in 2009. Well done, Colleen!