<\/p>\n
Memorial photo of Dr. Shamir Ratansi posted outside the offices of faculty in the Department of Criminal Justice in Health Sciences I.<\/p>\n
Jayden Hermitt<\/p>\n
Students and faculty have spent the past few weeks mourning the loss and remembering the legacy of a UCF professor and alumnus who died earlier this semester.<\/p>\n
Dr. Shamir Ratansi, a full-time lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice, died on Feb. 14 due to an unexpected medical condition, said Dr. Eugene Paoline, professor and chair of the department.<\/p>\n
Paoline said that Ratansi, who was 58, was a \u201cphenomenal person and a phenomenal teacher.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a big shock to our department, but also a big loss,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ratansi earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Calgary in Canada in 1992. Following, he earned his master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Central Florida in 1999.<\/p>\n
He earned his doctoral degree in criminal justice in 2005 from the University of Cincinnati, where his dissertation focused on the\u00a0handling of individuals with mental disorders by the police.\u00a0Ratansi’s areas of expertise in criminal justice included policing, criminology and criminal justice administration.<\/p>\n
Ratansi joined UCF’s Department of Criminal Justice as an adjunct instructor in the Summer 2020 semester and became a full-time lecturer in Spring 2023. Ratansi served as a lecturer in the department\u2019s undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs. He taught a wide variety of criminology and criminal justice courses.<\/p>\n
Outside the professional realm, colleagues say Ratansi\u2019s hobbies included traveling around the world, biking and wristwatches.<\/p>\n
Colleagues said Ratansi had a heart of gold and was admired by his fellow faculty members and his students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was respectful to the people around him,\u201d Paoline said. \u201cHe treated students and his faculty members like gold. The conversations that you had with him were meaningful to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paoline also said the Department of Criminal Justice has decided to rename its Excellence In Teaching Award to the Shamir Ratansi Excellence In Teaching Award in honor of the late professor.<\/p>\n
Dr. Richard Paul, lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice, said Ratansi\u2019s vibrant personality boosted the mood of the people around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably one of maybe two people that I’ve ever met that just made you smile every time you saw him,\u201d Paul said. \u201cI never saw him in a bad mood; he never put anybody in a bad mood. He just always had a bright, smiling personality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brendan Rafter, a master’s student studying\u00a0criminal justice, said Ratansi left an indelible mark on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe definitely had a huge positive impact on my life,\u201d Rafter said.<\/p>\n
He said Ratansi was his first in-person professor when starting the master’s program in Fall 2024. Rafter said he was apprehensive coming back to school to pursue higher education 30 years after earning his bachelor\u2019s degree, but said that Ratansi\u2019s deep sense of care for him and the other students in class encouraged him to keep going in the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took an interest in every student in the room,\u201d Rafter said. \u201cHe made a point of learning everyone\u2019s names, and he was incredibly supportive. When I had him as a professor, I was like, \u2018This is a great reintroduction to school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memorial photo of Dr. Shamir Ratansi posted outside the offices of faculty in the Department of Criminal Justice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[115,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-189385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}