Ec Majors Call for Reforms At Visiting Committee Meetings

Concentrators in economics told the department's visiting committee yesterday that the department should hire more Marxist professors and give students more control over faculty hiring and course offerings.

The students presented their proposals at an afternoon meeting of professors and graduate students. The proposals were formed earlier at a meeting of the Graduate Economics Club, a group of all graduate students in economics.

The students called for the hiring of at least four radical economists to insure the teaching of Marxist theory. They also said that the department should allow concentrators to write about Marxist theory for the optional part of the economics general exam.

The visiting committee's responsibility is to acquaint overseers with opportunities to improve the function of a specific area. The committee has no decision-making power.

Andrew F. Brimmer, visiting committee chairman, said at the meeting that he would inform the faculty of the undergraduates' wish for information concerning curriculum changes without waiting for the committee's report.

He said he has also heard the same complaints since became chairman of the visiting committee in 1966. Brimmer, an Overseer, said the visiting committee's report will be considered by the Board of Overseers also.

Brimmer said he was very pleased with the meeting, nothing that it was the frankest discussion of the numerous sessions which he has ever attended.

The meeting yesterday was the first one in which the visiting committee met with students at the students' invitation.

Nancy L. Glazer, a graduate student in economics, said at the meeting that as the demand for Marxist economics has grown, the supply has shrunk. She also called for an increased student voice in the determination of curriculum and hiring practices.

"The value of the PhD is only that it has the names of the faculty on it," James S. Deusenberry, chairman of the Economics Department said. "I feel that those who grant the PhD will continue to control the rules of the game."