ECB 254: "U.S. Business and Economic History"

The city of Chicago is the textbook when economics and business professor Santhi Hejeebu teaches about the rise of the industrial era. Thanks to Cornell’s One Course At A Time schedule, students in her economics and business course, "Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in U.S. Economic History,” spent four days in Chicago researching business history where it was made.

The course focused on the Pullman Company, a major player in the early railroad industry. The students received guided site visits to the Illinois Railway Museum and the Historic Pullman Town, and were treated to a guest speaker, Ted Shrady, who is very knowledgeable about the era.

They also delved into original Pullman Company documents at Chicago’s Newberry Library , one of the world’s finest research libraries. For more than 25 years Cornell students have benefited from a special arrangement with the Newberry.

Hejeebu’s students completed individual research projects under her guidance. Using skills learned during the course, they applied quantitative economics tools to specific Pullman data regarding pricing, financial statements, contracts, competition, etc.

“All students were involved in primary research, asking questions that have never been asked before,” says Hejeebu. “When students claim the questions as their own, they stop working for the grade. They want to be the expert—on Pullman’s pricing plan, Car No. 8, or whatever their own corner of the universe is.”

Hejeebu says that she is constantly seeking to develop experiential learning opportunities by creating contexts and posing questions that relate to her own expertise.

“We should play to our strengths as faculty members,” she says. “Grad school taught us to raise and attempt to answer original questions. You want the best students to have that kind of challenge. They are already such good learners.”