Under the Macroscope
by Kevin Cool

One needn't spend a lot of time with Associate Professor of Economics David Findlay to understand why students rate him among the best teachers on the campus. When he talks about economics, his entire body gets involved, coiling and uncoiling with each explanation, daring you not to be interested.
"Macroeconomics--money and banking issues--really interest me, and I get excited talking about them," Findlay said. "Not just talking about them but presenting those ideas to students so they can talk about these issues, too."
Students last spring selected Findlay as the fourth recipient of the annual Senior Teaching Award, an honor he says is both gratifying and humbling. "I was shocked. To be included with the group of previous winners really is a tremendous honor, and to be selected from among all of the great faculty members at Colby, well, I just can't believe it," he said.
"Maybe students misread the question," he joked. "I might be the first recipient to request a recount."
The origin of Findlay's popularity as a teacher stems from his willingness to challenge students, say his former students.
Steve Swartz '92, now head of the operations department at Morgan Stanley Canada in Toronto, recalls that Findlay was the toughest grader and most demanding teacher he had. He also was one of Swartz's favorites. "I got the worst grades of my Colby career in his classes, but the satisfaction that I received from those grades was greater than from any other grade I got," he said.
Swartz says he's not surprised that Findlay received the College's highest teaching award. "His classroom is a whirlwind," he said. "From the moment you walk in, you are bombarded with information presented in a dynamic fashion. He is always hitting you with real-life situations and bringing them back to theory. Then, as soon as you have grasped the concept, he will turn it on its head and test you."
"It's gratifying to know that you've pushed the students, that you've challenged them," Findlay said. "You try to be fair, and I was very pleased that students recognized that."
Findlay took on the issue of grade inflation in his Spotlight lecture on May 9 (see "Fear of Inflation"). Using a list of 10 principles to explain where and why inflation occurs in the macro economy, Findlay pointed out how the same principles could be applied to Colby. For example, he said competitive devaluation and depreciation--which occurs when a country intentionally devalues its currency to increase exports--may be used to explain why, theoretically, faculty would soften grading standards. Recent surveys suggest some faculty believe that giving higher grades results in better student evaluations and ultimately improves their chances for tenure and merit pay increases, Findlay said. "If it is in the faculty member's best interest [to grade more easily] and if other faculty members do it collectively then those members who hold the line and don't alter their standards would be hurt," he said.
Findlay says he used the grade inflation issue as a platform for his lecture because it was timely and offered a way to discuss economic principles in a Colby context. "I didn't even think about how the talk would go, but asked, `Are there macro issues I can use to motivate what happens here in a micro world--Colby, grades, faculty, students?' I had a blast coming up with the list."
Findlay, a member of the Grade Inflation Task Force, says the talk also was an attempt to address the underlying implications of inflated grades. "This is a cultural issue, and we need to send a message about what we value," he said. "It's a fight against G.P.A. emphasis."
Findlay wasn't always sure he would enjoy teaching. He recalls that as a graduate student at Purdue, where he earned his Ph.D., he wondered how faculty could teach the same material repeatedly without getting bored. "There are two reasons why that's not the case for me, and you only realize these over time," he said. "First, the students are always different; it's a new group every semester. And second, I just really get a kick out of helping students learn about economics."
His goal as a teacher, Findlay says, is to bring students to their own understanding of economics and equip them to analyze policies critically. "Ultimately what you want is for students to not just spit back what I've told them, but to be able to interpret policy statements and make their own determinations about whether those statements are correct," he said.