Saul Rubin, Santa Monica College journalism professor and advisor of the Corsair student newspaper, has been named the winner of the newly established SMC Foundation President’s Circle Chair of Excellence in Communication. Additionally, three professors have been selected for previously established chairs of excellence: Mark Trujillo in Fine Arts, Garen Baghdasarian in Life Sciences, and Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein in Philosophy and Social Science.
The four professors each receive $5,000 a year for each of the next three years to be used for special projects. Rubin plans to use his award funds to digitize the issues of the Corsair, which date back to Oct. 1, 1929, about two weeks after the school opened.
“We are in danger of losing a most precious historical treasure: More than 80 years of bound archives of the Corsair newspaper from 1929 to the present,” Rubin said in his proposal for the chair of excellence. “These archived editions of the Corsair, housed in the Santa Monica College library, are the only remaining copies of this vitally important historical record. Newsprint is fragile – it won’t last forever.”
Rubin, an award-winning journalist as well as professor who has served as Corsair advisor for nearly two years, has been teaching journalism at SMC since 1999. He has been a writer and columnist with several publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Variety and Copley Newspapers. He has written six books with a special focus on offbeat travel in California.
