United in their passion for poverty and inequality studies, seven students from varying academic disciplines met last night with David Grusky, professor of sociology and director of the newly launched Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality (SCSPI), to discuss the possibility of a new undergraduate concentration related to the study of poverty and inequality.

“Inequality has come to be regarded as a fundamental social problem,” Grusky said. “If poverty and inequality were treated in the past as mere moral problems, they are more regarded as problems with more profound consequences and threats for the world community than those of simple moral discomfort.”

The seeds of interest for such a concentration were sowed earlier this year with the opening of the SCSPI as part of the Stanford Challenge — President John Hennessy’s larger vision that Stanford become more deeply engaged in addressing the many problems facing the world in the 21st century. Top universities nationwide have already created interdisciplinary training programs in poverty and inequality, drawing on faculty from economics, sociology and political science departments. Grusky hopes to start a similar program here at Stanford.

“Though the Center is still in start-up mode, there are efforts to build a curriculum focusing on an undergraduate program in poverty and inequality studies,” he said. “Undergraduate students at Stanford who are interested in issues of poverty and inequality, of which there are many, have had to piece together their own programs in a haphazard way. Many universities have programs of this sort. It is very possible that it would be popular here too.”

Currently, Grusky’s proposal weighs the options of implementing either or both a minor and honors program in poverty and inequality that will provide an interdisciplinary home for students interested in exploring these issues. The program will be built around a core interdisciplinary course, “Controversies in Inequality,” taught by Grusky. Students would then be free to explore a program of electives focused on developing tools to analyze and unpack these issues from a variety of different viewpoints and disciplines.

Outlining the potential of inequality to negatively affect both macro- and micro-level outcomes such as terrorism, GNP, ethnic unrest, health and political participation, Grusky and the students said that the study of poverty and inequality is deeply interdisciplinary in a way that has rendered standard departmental training provincial.

“There is this great intersect among so many disciplines at this one issue: poverty,” said Aaron Kofman ‘09. “This is a huge issue that matters to a lot of different people from a lot of different fields.”

Grusky agreed, conveying his support of involving numerous academic disciplines such as economics, education, sociology, history, philosophy and political science.

“On my part and on part of the advisory,” he said, “I am fully behind making this concentration as interdisciplinary as possible without bias whatsoever.”

Fagan Harris ‘09, who has worked with Grusky in the past, is excited about this new initiative.

“I was very pleased with the start of the Center and the work it has done so far,” he said. “I think this is a huge need that needs to be addressed, and I wanted to be part of it in some capacity.”

If all goes as planned, Grusky hopes that the program will be in operation next year.