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Mary Irving (IRVING1200@DELPHI.COM)
Sun, 3 Mar 1996 22:49:19 -0500
Many years ago, when I was an undergrad at the University of
Wisconsin, we called all faculty members Mr. or Miss, or Mrs. and
they addressed their students the same way. I thought that it was
a good system. Only after getting to know a professor really well
he/she would call students by their first name and we reciprocated
(only outside of class of course). I had no contact with the
academic world until after my retirement from a career with the
federal government, when I decided to study anthropology. I had
moved to the South and found a very different atmosphere. All
faculty members are addressed as DR. and all students by their
first name. I always thought that calling students by their first
name was limited to K-12, and that university students would be
addressed as adults Ms. or Mr. Here graduate students still
address faculty as DR. Many of the students at this university are
middle-aged individuals who have raised families, are working, etc.
One of my professors (apparently he was uncomfortable calling an
old woman by her first name) never used any form of address except
"you". This does not mean that we did not get along. But I also
want to mention that under the system I was used to as an undergrad
there was a far more intellectually open relationship between
faculty and students. We talked more and argued more. Mary Irving
<IRVING1200@DELPHI.COM>
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