Known as the Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge (UWE), the three-year project will implement strategies for women in introductory economics courses designed to encourage them to stay in the major.
Spearheaded by Harvard University and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the program is administered by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
“The hope is to see a marked difference in the proportion of women who enter the major, a difference in GPA, a reduction in time to complete the major, or other markers of success,” said Illinois State’s Department of Economics Chair David Cleeton.
One of 20 schools chosen—alongside Yale, Princeton, and Brown universities—Illinois State will begin “interventions” in several sections of the Principles of Economics course this fall. Read more of the story by Rachel Hatch.
