{"id":42316,"date":"2019-05-22T08:38:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T12:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=42316"},"modified":"2019-05-22T10:28:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T14:28:23","slug":"retiring-professor-chris-gingrich-anchored-emus-econonics-program-for-24-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/retiring-professor-chris-gingrich-anchored-emus-econonics-program-for-24-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Retiring professor Chris Gingrich anchored EMU’s economics program for 24 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jelly beans, tennis balls and cups of coffee \u00a0\u2013 these descriptors appear with regularity when former students remember Professor <\/span>Chris Gingrich<\/b>. The first two classroom props were used in activities to illustrate consumer behavior, the law of diminishing marginal utility, production capacities and negative returns. The cups of coffee symbolize mentorship, the kind that fostered many students into a love of the same subject and a desire to teach as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Professor Chris Gingrich accepts a plaque from President Susan Schultz Huxman at a retirement reception this spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ryan Swartzentruber \u201816<\/b>, who recently finished his master\u2019s degree in agricultural and resource economics at Colorado State University, says he frequently reflects on what makes an excellent educator. \u201cI\u2019ve concluded that Chris has pretty well hit the nail on the head.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With a legacy of several EMU grads now teaching at large universities, \u201cChris has multiplied himself,\u201d said his colleague, business professor<\/span> Spencer Cowles<\/b>. \u201cIsn\u2019t that the sign of a great teacher, to inspire a lifelong love of the subject amongst their students?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite initial aspirations to work at a large, R-1 university, Gingrich chose to spend <\/span>24 <\/span>years at Eastern Mennonite University, where he has enjoyed a sustainable balance of teaching and research, prioritized mentoring relationships, and anchored the economics program. He retired at the end of the spring 2019 semester, earlier than he would have liked due to health reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

EMU has been \u201ca great place <\/span>to<\/span> come to every morning,\u201d Gingrich said in an interview during the last week of classes. \u201cI have always appreciated working in an academic environment with colleagues who support you and want you to do your own thing. … My students have kept me on the young side over these years and it\u2019s been very rewarding to see them go off after graduation and be successful in their chosen field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The teacher<\/b><\/h3>\n

Gingrich was known among his colleagues as an astute and innovative teacher. In a tribute announcing his retirement, Undergraduate Dean Deirdre L. Smeltzer<\/strong> noted: \u201cRather than rely on past success in the classroom, Chris has demonstrated a commitment to pedagogical growth, including a willingness to try out and master entirely new teaching methods in his classes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Matt Gnagey \u201805<\/a>,<\/b> now an <\/span>assistant professor of economics at Weber State University, recalls an innovative classroom game in which students acted as a cartel, accumulating extra credit points instead of money. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe class tried over and over to collude,\u201d Gnagey recalled, \u201cbut the incentives to forgo collusion for personal gain were strong, and just like OPEC we ended up overproducing, hurting ourselves collectively in the process. This same lesson explains many other international issues, for example why we have such a hard time mitigating climate change.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Gingrich came to teaching as \u201ca leap of faith,\u201d he said. Applied research was his initial interest. From a farming family, Gingrich earned his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in agricultural economics at <\/span>University of I<\/span>llinois and then, with his wife, spent three years in Haiti with Mennonite Central Committee. Returning to the states, he was accepted to the doctoral program at Iowa State University. His <\/span>advisor<\/span> helped him find a dissertation topic: <\/span>household<\/span> consumption <\/span>patterns<\/span> in Lima, Peru. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Professor Chris Gingrich developed research interests in public health and international development over a 30-year career in the field of economics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hired in <\/span>1995<\/span>, Gingrich was EMU\u2019s first \u201ctrue blue economist,\u201d said former EMU colleague, Professor Emeritus\u00a0<\/span>Rick Yoder<\/b><\/a>, a specialist in international development who had worked overseas with the UN and USAID. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cowles, then department chair, hired Gingrich for the position with a prescient sense of what he would bring to EMU. \u201cHe was the right person for the job, a true economist who enabled us to build a rigorous economics major around him and his passion and knowledge for the subject. But he was also someone who supports and cares about students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gingrich, who had never taught before, says Yoder \u201ctaught me how to be a respectable teacher.\u201d The duo shared the university\u2019s growing economics teaching load, as several majors required at least introductory econ coursework. Gingrich would eventually teach economics in the MBA program when it began, as well as undergraduate courses in quantitative research and finance.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of their challenges was to make class time interesting and engaging. Hence the jelly beans and tennis balls: <\/span>Gingrich was adept at developing lessons \u201cbeyond lectures and other didactic methods\u201d that encouraged unique interaction and active learning with concepts, Yoder said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also appreciated their many conversations about concerns and challenges, trips to economics conferences with students, and a shared perspective.<\/span> \u201cWe <\/span>both believe that economics is a tool to solve some of humanity\u2019s intractable problems, such as racism and inequality.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Solutions: The researcher<\/b><\/h3>\n

Gingrich was a prolific and exemplary scholar while balancing a heavy teaching load, Cowles said, and his research was practical and applied, \u201cnot about some arcane financial matter, but instead using his economics knowledge to reach out and make a difference in the lives of people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His contributions in the field of economic development and public health were part of a larger effort by EMU professors to be active contributors to their scholarly fields.<\/span><\/p>\n

Together with biology colleague Roman Miller<\/strong> (now professor emeritus), the business and economics department rallied to call for the EMU administration to support release time for research projects and importantly, to become \u201cknowledge producers instead of knowledge consumers,\u201d Yoder said. \u201cWe use textbooks someone else wrote, articles someone else wrote and we go to conferences where other people present. \u2026 Our point was \u2018Where\u2019s the Anabaptist voice of peace and justice and equity and the common good? How do we become part of this conversation?’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gingrich took a two-year leave in 2001-03, working with Mennonite Central Committee in Nepal as a consultant on microcredit and microfinance. Articles about his findings, published in the <\/span>Journal of South Asian Development<\/span><\/i> and the <\/span>Journal of Microfinance,<\/span><\/i> illustrate Gingrich\u2019s focus on applied research: the success of microfinance programs in serving the poor and the sustainability of microfinance delivery through community-based savings and credit cooperatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Answer to Malaria?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n