Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020435
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY PAGE: FD-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
STUDENTS SING PRAISES OF 1993 SPORN AWARD WINNER
"He is the kid of professor you enjoy listening to, the class you schedule the rest of your day around," one student wrote in nominating David Rubinstein for the 1993 Sporn Award.Management is a subject that is packed with theories and tables, the student continued. "It takes a unique and daring individual to make this type of class enjoyable and to make you feel like you are an individual. Dr Rubinstein did just that . . . "
Jon Shepard, management department head, says: "David is a genuinely unique teacher. He simultaneously inspires students to learn about management and to see their human potential."
The Sporn Award for First and Second Year courses is awarded to the faculty member receiving the most nominations from students currently enrolled at Virginia Tech. Rubinstein, an assistant professor who already has several teaching awards from the R.B. Pamplin College of Business, received "an overwhelming number" of the 500 votes cast.
The vote, under the auspices of the Golden Key Honorary Society and the Academy of Teaching Excellence, set a record in both the number of nomiTnations and the number of faculty nominated.
Rubinstein says he is delighted and "greatly honored" to win the award, but he is characteristically self-effacing about his teaching, preferring to credit his students for toughing out what he claims are "dry lectures" and large, impersonal classes.
"It's not an enjoyable course," he says of MGT/3304, Management Theory and Practice, the required course for business majors that he teaches every semester. "It wouldn't work without the cooperation and interest of the students." Rubinstein says he has had good, "questioning" students who turn the learning process into a partnership between themselves and the teacher. "They're terrific. They keep me going. I'm not that good a teacher."
His students, however, cannot disagree more, judging from their comments on the nomination forms.
"He has motivated me more than any professor I've ever had. He cares for all of his students like each one was a special person. He has a great sense of humor and great outlook on life . . . just seeing him makes me smile."
"I'm in a class of about 400 students, and he knows my name and takes an interest in me. If I wanted him to meet me in the library at midnight, he'd be there for me."
"His teaching is more than just management but on succeeding in life. What he has taught his students is unique to the classes here at Tech. There is never a time when Dr. Rubinstein puts himself or his work before helping a student."
"I have learned more in his class about the real world than any class I have taken at this university."
"He is a fantastic teacher."