Friday, November 4, 2011

Expedition to College Park

I like to revisit the haunts of my past self. Today I revisited the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland for the first time since I left there a bit over six years ago. The proximate purpose of my visit was to attend the labor/public finance/development seminar, which featured Flavio Cunha, and to visit my student Jessica Goldberg, who started at Maryland this fall.

Some thoughts on my visit:

1. The cracks in the walls from the earthquake a few months ago add character to old Tydings Hall but are worrisome nonetheless.

2. There was not a single person at the seminar today who was at Maryland when I left six years ago. That is a lot of turnover.

3. Of the seven professors at the seminar (including the speaker), three were Heckman students and two were students of Heckman students. Too much Heckman? Never!

4. The new chairs in the thoroughly reconstituted seminar room are much less comfortable than the ugly green swivel chairs in the old, darkly paneled seminar room.

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