Further re title use at Chicago

[P. Kerim Friedman]

I would like to follow up Alexandra Jaffe's comments by relating them 
to student behavior. Having gone to schools that encouraged calling 
professors by their first names I tend to do the same in my own classes 
- however, I have found some students quite resistant to this practice. 
My impression is that students who attended small private schools are 
much more comfortable with this practice than those who did not. Some 
foreign students are similarly uncomfortable with using a professors 
first name. In some cases when I tell my students not to call me "Mr. 
Friedman" but to use my first name, I end up with "Mr. Kerim" ...

- kerim

On Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at 10:53 AM, Alexandra Jaffe wrote:

>  
> I read with interest Dr./Mr./Prof. Rumsey'saccount of forms of address 
> at the U. of Chicagoas well as Laura Miller's, Hal Schiffman's and 
> Peter Patrick's comments. I think that there is another interesting 
> dimension of the usage described(this is also suggested by Peter). At 
> the same time as reciprocal TLN may have been indexing shared 
> membership in a community of high-powered scholars (downplaying 
> internal status hierarchy) it surely also served to differentiate that 
> community from other academic communities that used the (normative) 
> Dr. or Professor. The choice of less hierarchy-laden terms acted as a 
> powerful assertion of high status in the broader field of American 
> Universities precisely by downplaying the need for display of power. 
> That is, only the professionally insecure (and second-rate) would need 
> to hear their professorial titles.