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Outstanding University Service Award: Mark Siegler

Economics professor Mark Siegler doesn’t have any trouble finding things to do. His interest and involvement in several aspects of Sacramento State have been recognized with an Outstanding University Service Award.

To help his students, Siegler has served as the advisor to the Economics Club and the International Economics Honor Society and is also the coordinator of the department’s internship program. He’s supervised the department tutors, been on the Faculty Endowment for Student Scholarships Committee and the Institutional Scholarship Committee, and worked as a thesis advisor for many students completing their master’s.

Siegler is also accomplished at research and has had 10 papers published or accepted for publication since 2002, including many in top field journals.

He took take on even more responsibility when he became department chair last fall.

Siegler’s involvement at the University began when he started in 2002 during a period that saw a lot of new arrivals in the Economics Department. It was a big change from his former university, Williams College, where the Economics Department had people who had been there 30 years. “Here, pretty much right away, you could have a big say on how things were run,” says Siegler.

Economists tend to view positions for entry and exit, with a philosophy of leaving if the situation is not to their liking, says Siegler. But when you have a family, children and community connections, leaving is not the best alternative, and working for change becomes a better option, says Siegler.

He has no illusions about having an overwhelming influence, but notes that one voice can be joined by others. “If you start speaking up about things, you often find out that other faculty members feel exactly the same way,” says Siegler.

Siegler's first taste of economics was almost his last. He took a college economics course as a high school senior and hated it. But while attending UC Santa Cruz, many of his basketball teammates were economic majors and talked him into trying a second class. “I enjoyed it a lot and was very good at it,” says Siegler.

His young age may have contributed to his disinterest the first time around, but Siegler adds that a difference in teachers was a big contributing factor. Not that the first instructor was bad, “but the second person was outstanding,” says Siegler.

One of Siegler’s most challenging duties is putting the course schedule together each semester. Balancing the needs of hundreds of students with those of 15 full-time and 10 part-time instructors can be difficult, he says.