Name: Mark Rush
Born: Oakland, California
Teaches: principles of microeconomics and managerial economics
Hobbies: reading, particularly science fiction
If you have heard the phrase “Oh, director” on UF’s campus, then you already know I’m talking about the living legend himself — microeconomics professor Dr. Mark Rush. Dr. Rush has been teaching his online class at UF since 1982. He continues to teach and entertain students with his live recorded lectures and quirky anecdotes about the “director,” who’s in charge of managing the lectures.
Her Campus: Approximately how many students do you teach, and why does your class size keep on growing?
Mark Rush: “My class maxed out years ago at about 2,200 students in one semester. That was huge! When you get 2,200 students, you’re going to have to get ten or eleven classrooms to give exams, and it’s just a royal pain in the butt. I’m always worried on those exam nights. What if the classroom is locked? What if I have a really bad question? What if they didn’t give me enough copies of my exams?”
HC: During your lectures, you typically insult the director and make jokes at him. Why do you do this?
MR: “You want the serious answer? Well, I’ll give you the serious one anyways. I want students to learn economics because I think it’s really important. It gives you a huge insight on how stuff works — that’s what attracted me to the field. One of the ways you’re going to learn is by watching the online lectures. So if I sat up there and if I lectured in a monotone voice, nobody’s going to watch it because it’s not interesting. If I interact a little bit with the director, that makes it more interesting, more amusing and more people watching. I have had lots of people tell me how much they enjoy that interaction. There are a few people who don’t enjoy it… oh well. I have to play to the majority. What’s going to get more of my students to watch my class, and therefore inexorably learn economics? That’s the major reason.”
HC: In your class it is famous that you tell these elaborate and convoluted stories about how you met the director. How did you really meet him?
MR: “He was just hired. He showed up. He wasn’t the first director I had though. The first director I had was a guy who was Larry King’s son. My first director was Andy King, adopted by Larry King. I still run into him. My daughter and I ran into him at Publix about four months ago. He was a really nice guy. He eventually left and then I got another director, then he left. The last time I saw him was in a picture riding elephants in Thailand, and then they hired the current guy.”
HC: Did you and the director instantly click? Or did you have to get to know him first?
MR: “It takes a while, but it didn’t take too long. I was already used to heavily insulting the directors anyway.”
HC: How do all the previous directors differ from one another?
MR: “The first guy, Andy King, was very quick-witted, and that was fun. The second guy, Charles, was really nice but was not quick-witted. The third guy is very, very smart. I keep saying ‘guy’ because way back when, he asked all of us who did this to not mention his name. Some of the instructors do mention his name, but I have honored that all through the decades. It is because he wants his privacy.”
HC: Do you have any advice for students taking your economics classes?
MR: “Come in and talk to me for God’s sake.”
Photo Credit: Alexandra Ciccarone