Re: doctor/professor/etc

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 5/14/05 3:27:46 PM, rshuy at MONTANA.COM writes:


> When I first started teaching graduate courses in the seventies, hoping to
> develop a spririt of egalitarianism and holding the fond hope that as we
> worked on linguistic problems together we would reach a somewhat equal
> plane, I suggested that my students call me by my first name. A few of my
> American students did this, at least in my earlier days of teaching, but the
> idea was a complete flop with my foreign students, who couldn't seem to bear
> to be  so informal.  By the time I reached my fifties, even the American
> students gave up even trying. I guess I couldn't pull this one off, no
> matter how hard I tried. Maybe it wasn't a very good idea in the first
> place.
> 
> roger
> 

Graduate students in the North Carolina State-Duke Linguistics program all 
call all of the faculty by their first names, almost from day 1--even the MA 
candidates. Whether the professor is 35 or 65, male or female--makes no 
difference. I think we owe this to Walt Wolfram's wonderful way of putting people at 
their ease. We all take our lead from him. I'm not in the least unhappy with it.

The way the "doctor/professor" thing was explained to me when I first came to 
Duke in 1967 was this: "Never use "doctor"; use "professor." We can assume 
that everyone who teaches here is a doctor. You can use "Mr.," but the problem 
is that there are a few women on the faculty (!) and the "Miss/Mrs./Mizruz" 
thing is too complicated."