September 16, 2005

The 'Native Costume' of a Professor

To the Editor:

I have a comment about James M. Lang's "Looking Like a Professor" (Careers, July 29).

For 30-odd years here at the University of California, I have worn a jacket and a shirt with a collar, often with a necktie, when teaching. Because I frequently offer courses in rhetoric and in comparative culture, it is a useful teaching tool to be able to point out to students that I customarily teach in my native costume, the mode of dress traditionally associated in our