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[new PhD]

I just finished my degree and landed my first tenure track job.  This has led me to wonder how I will ask undergrads to address me next year.  As an instructor, I always insisted that students address me by my first name... I hadn't earned my Ph.D. anyway, and I wasn't that much older than them, so "Prof." or even "Ms." seemed too formal.  However, I am unsure how I should proceed now that I will be starting my career.  I consider myself a pretty down-to-earth person, and asking anyone to call me "Dr." feels pretentious to me.  I know there are faculty members in my new department who allow undergrads to address them by their first names, so it wouldn't be a problem if I continued to so (and I don't want to be the only stick-in-the-mud who insists on "Dr.").  On the other hand, I have found that students tend to see me more as their peer than their professor (perhaps because of my age, or perhaps because I am pretty laid-back in the classroom), and I think going by "Dr." might help to reinforce the professional nature of our relationship.  Both options have pros and cons.  Has anyone else grappled with this issue?  If so, how did you resolve it?

[Seeker]

Rather than telling students what to call me, I let them call me what they want. In the first class, I always introduce myself as Dr. So-and-So and state that they are welcome to call me or Dr. or Prof. So-and-So, or by my first name. I am not American and have a first name that many students seem to fear mispronouncing, and I think this is why many students stick with Dr./Prof. in communicating with me. If you're very young and/or female and/or a minority, you're more likely to encounter authority problems in the classroom than if you are older or male or white. But it sounds like you have teaching experience and that this hasn't been a problem. Rather than getting hung up on a minor detail, just let students do what they're comfortable with. If you find it bothers you in the long run, you can always change your identity in a subsequent semester.

[dr dr]

Although I often find it strange, it is best in my experience as a young faculty member to require student to call me Mr., Dr., or Professor.  You'll have an easier time establishing authority.  Many of them will call you 'sir'.  I try to discourage that.

[Dr. D]

As a first year TT prof myself, I appreciate being called Dr.  This sign of respect is one of the few remaining vestiges of the pre-internet, IM, Facebook, Laptop, cell phone videop gaming, email, world.  Dr. D is happy to take some level of respect where I can find it.

[anon]

I make my students refer to me as Doctor.  Students today are already so informal and lacking in civility that I think it's important to have a clear indicator that they are not my peers or my buddies.

[also new]

I'm also starting a t-t job in the fall and I have also always insisted that my students call me by my first name. I am going to have them call me dr. It's not that I feel that I need that to create an image of professionalism and impose authority, but sometimes i feel that they are more comfortable with that distance that this creates. however, if most people in your dept go by first name, it might be odd I would say 2 things, see what is done in your dept, and do whatever feels right and you are most comfortable with.

[TT]

"Dr." or "Prof." so-and-so is exactly the way to go, and I totally agree that one purpose of doing that is to maintain the professional and status difference between you and your students. You are not their pal or their friend the same way as the people they live with in the dorm or the frat house are.

This will not be a big deal for them, though- because they're used to calling all their profs "Dr." or "Prof." anyway. It's you that will have to get used to it a bit.

[js]

"Dr." As others have said, it's not your comfort that's at stake, it's theirs. They don't want you to signal that you're their buddy.

Regarding dr dr's "Many of them will call you 'sir'. I try to discourage that"--Fine, I guess, but you have to learn to live with "sir" if you're in the South. They (we) aren't trying to kowtow; they (we) are just demonstrating where a good raising gets you.

[to js]

The OP wrote that she didn't like going by Ms. earlier.

[Anony]

You should go with the accepted practice of your institution.  I have found that different types of institutions have their own preference.  In general, here is my impression of what titles get used where and the underlying rationale for it:

FIRST NAME -- used at prestigious SLAC.  Students are paying big bucks for individualiized attention, so for their money they get to address their professors as if they were their friends.

PROFESSOR --  used at prestigious R1.  I think this is a status issue.  At R1, which have graduate programs, it is important (on some unconscious level) for the undergrads to remember who is the professor and who is the graduate student.  Profs are addressed as "Prof" and Grad student instructors are thus left in the awkward position of not knowing what title to use, and feeling their lowly status most keenly.

DOCTOR -- used at non-prestigious schools (like mine).  I thought it bizarre that professors went by doctor when I first joined the faculty of a less-presitious SLAC.  But I soon realized that many of the faculty DO NOT have PhDs, especially adjuncts and permanent non-t-t lines of which there are many.  Thus, instead of distinguishing your status merely from graduate students (of which we have none) as the title Prof would serve to do, being called "Dr." gives you more status than your non-PhD colleagues.  I can't tell you how many times I've seen colleagues of mine referred to in front of students as "Dr. X" only to have to sheepishly reply that "I'm not a Dr. I'm just a professor."

[%sig%]

[Dr. Puddy Katz]

Herr Doktor Professor Katz

[anon]

I am struggling with this issue, too, but for a different reason.  As the previous poster indicated:

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I know this is quite common at SLACs.  It certainly was practice at my alma mater.  But I find it completely pretentious to use the term "dr." as an English PhD.  

However, I'm going to be starting at a SLAC next year where everyone goes by "Dr."  I'm aware of the impracticality of trying to buck the system, but I do find it an uncomfortable title.  I don't want to go by my first name, either, so I feel stuck going along with the "Dr." bit, though I strongly prefer "Professor."

Anyone have any suggestions about this?

[doctor doctor]

" Regarding dr dr's "Many of them will call you 'sir'. I try to discourage that"--Fine, I guess, but you have to learn to live with "sir" if you're in the South. They (we) aren't trying to kowtow; they (we) are just demonstrating where a good raising gets you."

Having grown up outside of Memphis, I'd agree.  I'm as likely to use "sir" with a supervisor, etc. as with an equal or a subordinate.  (even with people I know quite well, if we happen to be in a public context).

Try this one: I have my student's use "dr." when addressing me, I tend to address them as Mr./Ms.  1. It has an old world sort of Southern charm, I think; 2. It demonstrates that the respect is mutual and two way; 3. it clarifies our relationship - though necessarily intimate as education always is - has boundaries; 4. it , oddly, allows me to have the freedom to be MORE accessible and friendly (because we've clearly identified our roles; there will be no confusion over presumed friendships or casualness).  

I remember once, as an undergrad, I had a professor who I addressed by first name, who would eat with us in the cafeteria, and who was really laid back in the classroom.  We hung around him all the time (more than a few had crushes, I think).  It felt like being with one of the "cool kids."  I remember, however, how I responded when my "friend" suddenly turned into my evaluator.  In hindsight, I can now see the sense of betrayal, embarassment, and personal feelings overwhelmed my ability to understand and learn from the criticism being given.

What was undertaken, I'm sure, as a way of "relating" to us to increase learning actually impaired it.  Also, I'm not so sure the desire  to "relate" arises as much from pedagogic concerns as it does from personal ones.

[anon again]

I didn't make it clear that one of the aspects of the previous poster's story that I don't like is the embarrassment imposed on instructors without PhDs in front of their students.  I just don't think it's fruitful to bring students into these distinctions.  The institution should be invested in making students believe that all of their instructors are qualified.  And I don't feel great that a person who has been teaching for 20 years would be distinguished from me, a new PhD, in front of students by not giving him/her access to the same title I have.

[yankee in the south]

I prefer "Dr."  but have no problem with "Mr." or "Sir."  Although I do have to fight back a chuckle when they call me "Sir X."

Some have started calling me "Boss"  I'm pretty sure that this is a joke at my expense, but it still makes me smile.