Students attend economic policy symposium in D.C.

Featured Events Stories | Mar 31, 2011 | admin

The financial challenges of the past three years have demonstrated how interconnected the world’s economies are. The collapse of the U.S. mortgage industry made waves in financial markets across the globe. Debt crises in Greece, Portugal, and here at home have sparked concerns that the weakness of one country’s economy could set back the recoveries of other nations. Governments around the world are struggling to determine the fiscal policies that will best advance their causes — sometimes with regard for the effects of their actions on other countries, and other times not.

Issues like these will inform the discussions at the annual Doscas Symposium, to be held April 13 in Washington, D.C. Gabelli students have the opportunity to travel to Washington to take part in the conference, whose theme is “Economic Policy-Making in a Post-Downturn World: National Interests and the Global Interest: Mutually Exclusive or One and the Same?” Our students’ participation has been made possible by a generous alumnus, who hopes to promote student dialogue on the issues that are now facing political and business leaders.

The symposium brings together representatives of government agencies, leaders of policy-research institutes, and members of the U.S. House subcommittee on international monetary policy and trade. The Gabelli students who apply and are selected to attend will, after the conclusion of the conference, complete an assignment that will assess how the experience has improved their understanding of how economic policies are formed.

The Gabelli group will leave in the afternoon on Tuesday, April 12, and attend a welcome dinner upon arrival in Washington. They will attend the symposium all day on April 13 and return to New York that night by 10 p.m.

Due to the logistics of coordinating transportation and housing for the conference, a limited number of students will be selected to participate. Those who are selected will be required to submit a $100 deposit, which will be refunded after the student participates in the symposium and submits the required post-conference writing assignment.

Students who will miss class due to their participation in the conference will need to communicate with their professors in advance to make necessary arrangements to minimize the disruption caused by the absence.

Interested students should e-mail bdunn@fordham.edu to request an application.  Applications are due by 12 noon on Monday, April 4.