Professor vanWassenhove is an excellent instructor in the Economics Department of the University of Houston. The Economics department at the University of Houston has decided to not renew his contract for the upcoming academic year. Professor vanWassenhove has been a lecturer at the University of Houston for about a decade. In his time at the University, he has developed a reputation of being loathed or loved by students. The students who loathe him are the ones who attempt to pass classes without reading the book. They find that when the exam comes, his knack for creating the most difficult multiple choice questions does not allow them to succeed in a quest for an A. The other students who keep up with the text book are treated to a classroom instruction method that revolves around the socratic method. It is a discussion format where students and the professor engage in helping each other learn more about the material. Obviously the professor has a wealth of knowledge and experience with Economics that he uses to guide discussions in class.

As an aside, Professor vanWassenhove subscribes to a minority Economic tradition present period. He follows the Austrian Economics tradition. As such, he is a lone voice for this classical school of economic thought. If you are unfamiliar with the Austrian School, I suggest looking up Ludwig Von Mises, FA Hayek, Ron Paul, Tom DiLorenzo or many other popular and lucid economists from the tradition. If he is not retained on staff, there will be an entire vibrant economics tradition that will never be raised or taught about to thousands of students at the university. It is a shame that such a good and unique professor is having to fight for his job due to budget cuts at the University. I say let the school cut back somewhere else and not with excellent lecturing professors.