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[Mahoo is wrong...]

Actually, if you are, say, a Visiting Assistant Professor, your department does indeed stand to gain from seeing you move on to a tenure track position.

[on committee]

IT DOESN'T MATTER!

Have you seen anyone on committee yet to say, YES! when I see letterhead, that gives the applicant a boost? Nobody cares. Use nice clean white paper. At least it doesn't matter when you put it in the printer upside down.

[befuddled]

so are ABDs supposed to break into the department secretary's office after-hours and steal letterhead papers, just so a search committee won't think us odd???

As if life isn't complicated enough, here come the anal search committee members to make things even tougher. Thanks!

[fa la la la la]

I've been on three search committees in different areas and I never noticed whether or not the cover letter was on letterhead.  I wouldn't stress it either way.  I was NEVER offended by plain paper.  PINK is offensive.  Or orange.  Or the guy who printed his 20-page CV in such a way that each page was a different color.  Clip art is bad, as well as little flower doodles after one's name.  But plain paper, never a problem.

[Ask the Secretary]

Grad students generally ask the graduate secretary.

Everyone else, including adjuncts and visiting faculty (and also grad students who are teaching), asks the student assistant or whoever it is in the main office that hands out supplies.

I'm at a not-very-flush R-1, but certainly everyone is expected to have a stack of letterhead and envelopes in their desk drawers for official correspondence of all kinds -- asking for desk copies, writing to students, writing letters of reference for students, doing cover letters for things submitted for publication or for conference proposals, asking for the form so apply for a grant, applying for jobs -- whatever!  (But NOT for writing letters to newspapers, unless some official university body has empowered the letter.)

[Aristotelian]

For those who say letterhead is theft, doesn't the same standard apply to regular paper that you get from your office?  I know you won't get "caught" with regular paper, but from an ethical perspective it seems like the same thing.  Regular paper costs the school money, and if you aren't using it for university business, it's theft too.

In any case, I just always assumed that letterhead is a perk that comes with the job (as long as it's not abused).

[bobblehead]

Aristotelian makes a good point, as does the person who suggested "why not buy the letterhead."  But... isn't the issue raised by the "theft" lobby not so much who paid for the paper but a "branding" or "copyright" issue?

That said, I not only don't see it as wrong, but when I've applied for jobs I would have been very disappointed if my colleagues hadn't THEMSELVES used letterhead for the rec letters they wrote for me!!  It's an identification thing.  

On another matter:  When I publish a journal article or book, and I publish a lot, or give a conference paper, and I present a lot, I attach my college's name.  Now, I'm not at a very prestigious college, and in a particular venue I am without question adding prestige to my college rather than the other way around.  (And this is not bragging-- just reality. I have no doubt that many many of you could say the same thing.  Many of us are at colleges whose names our colleagues in the field have never heard until they met us).  I suppose if I really WANTED to, I could withhold my college's name, but I'm glad to let people know where I am, and even if I leave here eventually I will have left a paper trail of my time here, so that my college's name will forever be in certain journals, on certain bookshelves, that it otherwise wouldn't have been.

But who's counting these things?  If I'm not, then why should my college?

[Mahoo]

Aristotelian wrote:

> For those who say letterhead is theft, doesn't the same
> standard apply to regular paper that you get from your office?
> I know you won't get "caught" with regular paper, but from an
> ethical perspective it seems like the same thing.  Regular
> paper costs the school money, and if you aren't using it for
> university business, it's theft too.
>
> In any case, I just always assumed that letterhead is a perk
> that comes with the job (as long as it's not abused).

All jobs (at least a large majority) permit reasonble/minimum use of resources for personal purposes, such as that phone call to your husband/wife during the day to discuss dinner or order something on the internet. Printing some CVs and cover letters probably falls in this category as well.

However, you are not representing your school in this. And this is not official business you are hired to do, no matter how one justifiy it.  The exception is for graduate students because they are the product. Good schools do provide help to their visitors. But that is largely professonal courtesy and good practice. The visiting faculty members do not represent the school in their job search.

[Mahoo]

bobblehead wrote:

> That said, I not only don't see it as wrong, but when I've
> applied for jobs I would have been very disappointed if my
> colleagues hadn't THEMSELVES used letterhead for the rec
> letters they wrote for me!!  It's an identification thing.  
>

But you should always write Letter of Recs on letterhead because that is official business. You are serving as a reference precisely because of your professional association.

[Anon]

If using paper in general is theft, so if using pens you borrowed from the department to write a check.

Get real.

[Velvet Elvis]

um, shouldn't we be asking who the original poster is?  If s/he's a grad student, it's totally cool for that person to be using their own dept's letterhead.  It's like an endorsement as they go forth out into the world.  

That said, I've seen lots of applications from profs on letterhead.  I, myself, did not use letterhead when I applied to move from my 1st tt-job.  I wanted to be contacted at home anyway, so I just wrote the cover letter like a business letter.

VE.

[bobblehead]

Mahoo wrote:

> bobblehead wrote:
>
> > That said, I not only don't see it as wrong, but when I've
> > applied for jobs I would have been very disappointed if my
> > colleagues hadn't THEMSELVES used letterhead for the rec
> > letters they wrote for me!!  It's an identification thing.  
> >
>
> But you should always write Letter of Recs on letterhead
> because that is official business. You are serving as a
> reference precisely because of your professional association.

This seems sticky; how can it be my colleagues' official business to help me leave the college, thereby necessitating a costly search?  Sure, it's official business if they write a letter for me to get a grant, or to help a student get a job.  But I strongly doubt that it's their official business to help me leave my current tenured job.

In addition, when applying for a job I will obviously prominently mention that I currently have a job at X University; it will be at the top of my CV and in the first sentence of my cover letter.  So, I go back to the question:  is the "theft" lobby most concerned about the physical sheet of paper that costs money or the use of the Company's brand name for personal enhancement?  If the latter, then it seems that any mention of one's employment is done ONLY in order to trade on the fact that the Company has given one a job in order to benefit self.  But of course no one is going to write "I have taught comp lit at a prominent liberal arts college for 9 years" in order to avoid brand name infringement.

If, however, the "theft" lobby is concerned about the physical resource then it would behoove them to point out that NO Company resources, including printer cartridges, should be used for the job search.

Finally, I truly hope the "it doesn't matter" camp is right.  Because there have been previous threads on this topic and it seems as if a fair number believe one absolutely shouldn't do it, it looks terrible, sleazy, etc., while a fair number believe it is a terrible disadvantage NOT to do so.  As if those searching for employment needed one more thing to worry about!!

[It hasn't hurt me]

I am in the social sciences and asked and got permission to use the letterhead (not knowing the standard either).  

It doesn't seem to have hurt anything so far-- I have already received offers for six interviews.

I think those who think it's tantamount to stealing need to consider that some departments may give their candidates permission to use departmental supplies for this purpose.  Our department even let some candidates send out applications through its mail system (paying for postage, in other words).

[It hasn't hurt me]

I should also add that I'm a graduate student and I think the reason why my department does this (as it has been explained to me) is because it is to the department's benefit to see their students get good jobs, as it reflects well on the department as a whole.

It might be different if an assistant professor wanted to use it to try to get another assistant professor position.