Earlier this semester, Kevin F. Hallock walked into a 9 a.m. class he’s co-teaching holding a cup of coffee in his right hand. A few of the dozen or so students perked up when they saw it. The drink came from a beloved national chain that isn’t sold through any outlet on UR’s campus. A student posed a half-joking, half-serious question: Can we get that outlet on campus?
Professor and student both smiled because they each knew that Hallock was exactly the right person to ask.
Hallock, in addition to being a professor for this class, has been Richmond’s president since 2021. In that role, he steers the university’s vision and financial decision-making in partnership with the university’s leadership and people across campus. In this class, Hallock is steering the students’ learning about such decisions in partnership with Jim Monks, a professor of economics in the Robins School of Business. The course is ECON259: The Economics of the University. It is a deep dive into the complex financial operations of universities. Throughout the course, the University of Richmond is Example 1A.
“If you’re taking a class about the economics of the university, there’s really no better person than the person who’s on the inside of everything,” said Ethan Vest, one of the students in the course.
The course exemplifies the kind of unique learning experiences possible at Richmond, by leveraging the university’s intimate size and engaged leadership to provide students with unparalleled educational opportunities. The class uses Richmond as its primary example, looking at things like financial aid, tuition, philanthropy, the endowment, compensation, building projects, and how the university is run. Students examine Richmond’s finances and the finances of other colleges and universities using publicly available information.
As the semester progresses, these students are not just learning about university economics – they’re developing critical thinking skills that will serve them well beyond graduation. “Yes, I want them to understand how universities work,” Hallock said, “But more importantly, I want them to learn how to analyze complex organizations and make informed decisions. That’s a skill they’ll use no matter where their careers take them.”
His professorial style is invitational, example-driven, and Socratically inquisitive. At one point during a class session focused on tuition and financial aid, he temporarily took down his slide deck and asked students to predict the shape of a graph plotting endowment per student on the x-axis and net tuition on the y-axis for the 35 top liberal arts institutions, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, a list that includes Richmond.
“President Hallock really invites us to engage,” Imman Kajtazovic, a sophomore in the course, said. “He’s always open to our questions, no matter how basic or complex they might be.” She calls Hallock and Monks “a great team.”
Over his 30 years of teaching, Hallock has taught a wide array of economics courses, ranging from macro- and microeconomics to labor economics and compensation design. This is his first time leading a course on how universities manage their money and operations. And, it turns out, he’s learning alongside everyone else in the classroom. He learns from his co-professor, Monks — “Jim is terrific,” Hallock said — and the students help him think differently about his work as president.
“We’ve talked about financial aid quite a bit in the class, and I’m trying to raise new resources for financial aid,” he said. Access and affordability is one of the five guiding lights of the university’s current strategic plan. “The questions students ask help me better prepare and think about how I can approach donors to help support our students. Additionally, some of the questions they’re asking will help us with how we think about financial aid going forward.”
“He’s always open to our questions, no matter how basic or complex they might be.”
Students say they view the university differently because of the course. Kajtazovic, who plans to double major in economics and political science, was surprised by what she learned about Richmond’s endowment and just how important gifts from alumni, parents, and others are. “I realized that donations are part of why I can be here on financial aid,” she said. “People give back because they believe in us as students.”
She’s grateful for the proverbial peek behind the curtain. “I feel very honored to be in the course,” she said. “It’s a special opportunity that we get as students to be taught about our university specifically. I’m part of this great institution. I want to know how it operates.”
Hallock hopes that all students finish the course with “a deepening understanding of how a complex organization really works” beyond just economics, he said, such as balancing the sometimes incongruent views among and within different constituencies. “Developing a wider appreciation for that when they’re solving problems as leaders is also something that I hope they’ll take away.”
Another of his own takeaways from the course is that he hopes to continue carving out time from his busy schedule as president to continue teaching. It connects him with the day-to-day life of the university and the needs of staff and faculty in important ways. Plus, he just likes it. “I’m more enthusiastic about being at Richmond now than the day I started, and the students are just great,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to be in the classroom with them.”