“It is frustrating. It shows how incredibly insensitive the Economics department is to students’ views,” said Marglin’s daughter, Jessica M. Marglin ’06, who is involved in SHARE.

But the proposal has not been without its critics. Some students who support Ec 10 organized a petition against the alternative course, arguing that it would segregate students by ideology.

“Ec 10 is sufficient,” said James P. M. Paquette ’06, who said the proposal was “ill-conceived” because the alternative course would be “another biased class,” and two biased classes would not cancel each other.

After yesterday’s defeat, Marglin said he is considering several options.

The department encouraged him to create “a course that criticizes the assumptions, and that will have Ec 10 as a prerequisite,” he said.

Another option is to develop a second economics core class, but such a move would require the approval of the Core Office.

Feldstein could not be reached for comment last night.