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The Rice Thresher
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by Olivia Allison Thresher editorial staff
Economics Professor John Bryant, who was replacing the macroeconomic theory course's original instructor, Assistant Professor Yasar Barut, then announced to the students that Wednesday's test was canceled and all homework the students had previously turned in would not count toward their grade in the course. Barut took over Bryant's graduate course, ECON 505: Macroeconomic/Monetary Theory II. Bryant taught ECON 375: Macroeconomic Theory last semester. Economics Department Chair Peter Hartley said Barut was removed after students in the course filled out a survey sent Feb. 2. Barut, whose contract is up for renewal this year, had received negative evaluations when he taught the same course last spring. However, Hartley said the department was not sure whether Barut's decision to make the average grade in the class a C had influenced the evaluations, so he sent a survey to the current students in the course. "There was some concern about the teaching in that course, in particular last year, so I wanted to get to the bottom of what the problem was there," Hartley said. "We got lots of negative feedback from the students again on this survey." Twenty-seven of 70 students in the class responded to the survey in the first three days after it was sent. Hartley said he thought more responses would have come had the change in professor not been made. Hartley said Barut's evaluations in graduate-level courses are above both the economics department average and Rice average. "[Economics 375] is the only course he's had any problems teaching," Hartley said. Students in the class said they spent much of Monday and Wednesday deciding whether their grades would be based on tests, papers or projects. Bryant told them they would not have weekly homework assignments, as Barut had planned. Sid Richardson College sophomore Tiffany Bludau did not fill out the survey but said she thought the class seemed glad to have a new professor. "I got a general feeling that the class was happy," Bludau said. "I don't think anyone was upset, but this also came with the news that we wouldn't have any homework." Jones College sophomore Otmane Bennani-Smires said he did not have time to fill out the survey. He said he thought Barut's teaching had been "OK" but said he also likes Bryant. "I didn't think anything bad about [Barut]," Bennani-Smires said. "It wasn't that big of a deal - I didn't want him to leave. ... I didn't complain about him and I don't know many people who did." Brown College sophomore Alisha Nathoo said she could not make a judgment about whether Bryant was a better teacher because he had not yet given a lecture as of Wednesday. "It seems as though the past two lectures have been him trying to win us over," Nathoo, who filled out the survey, said. "He seems like a great person and he seems really willing to help us out, but I kinda felt like he was appeasing us." Hartley said teaching an undergraduate-level course is more difficult than teaching graduate-level courses. "Teaching undergraduates is different than teaching graduates," Hartley said. "People really have to fill in the details for undergraduates, but the graduates have seen the material before." Barut said he was involved in the decision to exchange courses and he thought the change would benefit students in both Economics 375 and 505. "It looked like it was the best for now for both the graduate students and the undergraduates," Barut said. "It will be useful to the department." Barut said he received above-average evaluations for the undergraduate course he taught at Purdue University, his previous school, but ECON 375 is a larger class than that one. "The class size was larger, that was the major difference," he said. "With experience, I expect to get better." The survey sent to ECON 375 is not related to the survey produced by the Economics Department's undergraduate committee and members of the Student Association Senate.
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