Sheyda Jahanbani, assistant professor of history at Kansas University, knows the question all her students are asking these days: Are we really entering the next Great Depression?

If college students are taking the time to ask it, she figures everybody else is as well.

Jahanbani hopes a Monday evening forum of university and business leaders will provide answers to that question and others.

“I just wanted to do something to make the resources of the university and the community available to people who are feeling nervous and concerned,” Jahanbani said. “I want to have a discussion on everything from practical concerns like whether we’ll be able to get a mortgage in the future to big questions like who is to blame for this mess.”

The forum – titled a Town Hall Meeting on the State of the Economy – will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt.

The event will include three panelists:

l Robert DeYoung, a Kansas University business school professor who is an expert on U.S. banks.

l Mohamed El-Hodiri, a KU professor of economics.

l Don Johnston, executive vice president of the northeast Kansas region for Intrust Bank.

Nationally, economists are predicting a significant recession that will include higher rates of unemployment, and tightening credit that will make it more difficult for people to obtain home loans.

For example, Johnston said it is not inconceivable that the financial industry will return to the days when people wanting to buy a home will have to produce a down payment of 20 percent or more.

Johnston said he’s glad the forum is taking place to help answer questions.

“I think there is a great deal of confusion about it,” he said.