AWARD-WINNER
ECU business professor to speak at fall 2012 commencement
A faculty member in the College of Business honored recently for his excellence in the classroom will deliver the commencement address at East Carolina University on Dec. 14.
Dr. Ravi Paul, associate professor in the Department of Management Information Systems, will deliver the address during ceremonies at Minges Coliseum. Paul received the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching during ECU’s annual Founders Day and University Awards Celebration in April. This annual top teaching award honors one recipient at each of the 16 campuses in the UNC-system.
The commencement ceremony is scheduled to begin with a band concert at 9:30 a.m. in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. The commencement program will follow at 10 a.m.
During the event, more than 2,190 students are expected to receive their degrees, including approximately 1,600 bachelor degree candidates and 591 graduate degree candidates, of which one is from the Brody School of Medicine.
A faculty member at ECU since 2003, Paul teaches in the Department of Management Information Systems, which combines business and information technology skills.
“As I continue to strive to become a better teacher, I have come to realize that teaching involves much more than the actual time spent in contact with students,” he wrote in his philosophy of teaching statement. “In addition to a strong, guiding teaching philosophy, it involves keeping current… so that I can incorporate appropriate changes into the classroom and into the curriculum.”
Students will “rise to the level of expectation we hold for them,” he said, and he aims to maintain and communicate these high expectations while fostering a caring, encouraging learning environment.
In addition to the UNC Board of Governors award, Paul has received other teaching honors, including the ECU Alumni Association’s Robert L. Jones Award for Outstanding Teaching, College of Business Commerce Club Teaching Excellence Award and New Faculty Teaching Award, and ECU Scholar-Teacher Award.
Before joining ECU, Paul taught at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial management from Clemson University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University in India.
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