authority
Back in spring I joined an "Academic Mamas" group on FB, and it's been quite interesting. One thing that has recently come to the fore, in many different threads, is what students should call their teachers. There are a lot of people in the group who are very exercised by ensuring that their students call them "Prof. X" or "Dr. X" and not "hey [
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This is definitely a My Personal Experience thing: I don't like being Dr. Uckelman or Prof. Uckelman to my students because I'm not entirely sure who that person is and I am not entirely comfortable being that person, and I feel awkward trying to teach while being that person and thus I don't teach as well.
As for formal distance between professor and student -- I don't think it has to be detrimental. But again, I think it is detrimental for me and my teaching. This has a big part to do with why I went into teaching in the first place: The pastoral side of things. There are many aspects of being a university student in the 21st C that are already hard enough, and I don't want "an uncomfortable distance between you and the person who could help you" to be another barrier. What level of distance is "uncomfortable" goes both ways; I am more comfortable as 'Sara', so that is what I prefer/promote, but if the student is more comfortable with Dr. Uckelman, then I am fine with that (while continually making it clear that if they would be more comfortable with 'Sara' then I am okay with that). I have had some students in my office telling me of really sad and scary things, but what I find hardest about these encounters is how scared they sometimes are of telling these things and asking for help, even if it's just a week's deadline extension. I want whatever distance is between me and my students to be small enough that when they ARE in this position, they feel they can come to me for fair treatment and no judgement.
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