Ec TF Back by Popular Demand

The Economics Department can’t escape the laws of supply and demand.

More than a year after the department bid adieu to popular teaching fellow Bruce D. Watson, saying he had reached the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ six-year term limit for non-tenured instructors, Harvard has rehired Watson to serve as a TF in Economics 1813, “The Indebted Society.”

His return marks a belated victory for the a group that called itself “Students for Bruce Watson,” which banded together in the spring of 2005 to lobby administrators on Watson’s behalf.

The group’s petition—calling on Harvard to keep Watson as a teaching fellow for undergrad courses—garnered more than 700 signatures at the time.

In his previous stint as a teaching fellow in Social Analysis 10, “Principles of Economics,” Watson won a Levenson award for outstanding teaching in 2001.

“He is truly an extraordinary teacher,” said former Watson student Teo P. Nicolais ’06-’07.

“He has a gift for connecting with students and conveying concepts with absolute clarity. He’s enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and unfailingly patient,” he said.

Nicolais, who has maintained contact with Watson, now finds himself enrolled in the instructor’s section again as an Ec 1813 student.

Watson also served as a residential tutor in Lowell House. And in 2001, he filled in as the head instructor of Economics 1010a, “Microeconomics Theory,” amid mounting complaints from students about the course’s previous head.

According to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Brian W. Casey, a teaching fellow originally assigned to Ec 1813 withdrew from the position well into the current semester.

Watson’s new appointment for the rest of the term was the solution to “quickly meet the pressing needs of the students and the professor,” Casey said.

Casey defended the policy that had prevented Watson from extending his TF term beyond six years.

“The College would not be well-served by the creation of semi-permanent adjunct faculty ranks, nor would the academic careers of individuals appointed as teaching assistants be advanced by long-term employment in this category,” Casey wrote in an e-mail.Watson’s re-appointment, he added, was an “exceptional action.”

Watson is nevertheless thrilled to be back. When approached by Economics Department members last month, “I jumped at the opportunity. It’s an exciting subject and, of course, Harvard students are always an incredible delight to teach,” he said.

Watson also teaches an Extension School course, “Principles of Finance,” this fall, and he is scheduled to teach the Extension School’s equivalent of Social Analysis 10 this spring.

The head of Ec 1813, Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry James L. Medoff, could not be reached for comment.