University of Albany Professor Paul Morgan Jr.Voted #5 in USA

Stories swapped in the halls of the School of Business have always included favorite professors. These days, adjunct professor of Accounting and Law Paul Morgan Jr. is always mentioned. Morgan took the number five spot on the RateMyProfessors.com second annual top ten list of Top-Rated Professors.

The mere mention of the word “law” can put students in a coma but Morgan doesn’t see it as a dry subject. He uses funny stories to teach. He explained, “Some I made up, some happened to me in court and some happened to other people. Some of the stories I used in ’93 (when he started teaching), I’m still using today.” He has so many stories now that he doesn’t have time to tell them all.

Morgan, who also teaches at Albany Law School, keeps them laughing and learning with stories about his cat Boo-Boo and its replacement Boo-Boo2, and quasi-legal terms like, "lock and load,” “rock and roll," "balderdash,” “top shelf” and "shi-shi-foo-foo,” a term he picked up from a friend in Manhattan. Morgan said that he teaches the students lots of legal terms as well. “I love words. ‘Uncontroverted’ is a great word. It means ‘no controversy.’ I teach them to use legal terms in their daily lives so that they remember them. Bifurcate means ‘divide in two.’ I tell them to go to Burger King and ask to bifurcate their burger. Humor is the best way to teach but I can’t make every legal term funny.”

Morgan started teaching at UAlbany when he was still in law school. One afternoon in 1993, his dad, Paul Morgan Sr., now retired, got stuck at work at his New York City office and asked Paul Morgan Jr. to teach a class in negotiable instruments. After Morgan graduated from law school, he was soon teaching at the School of Business on a regular basis.

According to comments made by students on ratemyprofessors.com, Paul Morgan Jr. is one of the funniest men on earth. He’s been called “awesome, “caring” and “best teacher.” Lisa Picco ’08, Risk Advisory Consultant at Ernst & Young, said, “I am not surprised at all that Paul Morgan Jr. made the top five professors in the country. I never grew tired of listening to his stories. His class was the one I never wanted to miss. It was not a piece of cake; however, if you went to class you were sure to pass with flying colors.”

Morgan said he is surprised, appreciative and humbled by his “top shelf” ranking. “Several colleagues congratulated me. It meant the world to me.”

One word of caution. Students who don’t want to share their food should avoid sitting in the front row of Morgan’s classes. Skittles are a favorite, but the favored professor has also helped himself to other types of candy, cookies and an occasional Chicken McNugget. Picco noted, “I think that people would bring in food and sit in front on purpose. I occasionally benefitted from it because I sat in front and he would share his Skittles.” Morgan admits that he goes to class hungry, but asserts that he warns the students on the first day of class. He noted that students are miffed when he ignores their food and reaches for a neighbor’s snack.

Other professors rated highly by RateMyProfessors are Joe Sheehan (accounting and law), Rita Biswas (finance), Cecilia Falbe and Ray Van Ness (management), and Don Purdy (marketing). RateMyProfessors.com calls itself “Internet's largest listing of collegiate professor ratings” and is owned by mtvU. For the Top-Rated Professor ranking, they considered professors with at least ten rankings. Two and one half years of scores were used, weighting the most recent year more heavily.

Morgan teaches Business Law, Trust and Estate Law, and Law for Managers. In addition to his teaching duties, Morgan has a day job: he serves as Chief Clerk of the Rensselaer County Surrogate’s Court. He previously worked for the New York State Senate. In 2005, he received the University at Albany Excellence in Teaching Award. He is frequent lecturer for the New York State Bar Association, the Office of Court Administration and other organizations. Numerous awards Morgan has received include the Honorary Member of the Golden Key National Honor Society from University at Albany, Harold L. Cannon Memorial Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching from the School of Business, School of Business Dean’s Award for outstanding teaching, University at Albany President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Positive Difference Award of the University at Albany in recognition of making a positive difference in a student’s experience at the University and the Outstanding Faculty and Outstanding Faculty Achievement Awards in recognition of contributions to disabled student community.