Really?
The university where I work is staging its annual photograph update of faculty members. The photos will appear on the university website and in promotional materials.
Part of the notice about the photos said this: "Please dress appropriately, men preferably with a tie."
Really? Yes, really: Male faculty members need to be reminded that they should dress professionally when they are, in effect, a face of the institution.
I had an interesting email exchange with a member of the theology department a few weeks ago. The faculty email listserv was caught up in a discussion about enrollment, and I proposed that our image is hurt by too many male faculty members who dress as if they're taking trash to the landfill.
This guy unloaded a front-end loader full of academic elitism on me, pointing out that he had done his doctorate work at Yale (har-RUMPH kaff-kaff) and the professors he worked with didn't wear ties, and also, when he and his son visited a dozen or so major universities over the summer, the faculty members they spoke with didn't wear ties either.
Then came the line from another planet, as he suggested students might find it easier to work with professors who look-his word-"cool."
If this guy is an arbiter of cool, then I am the reincarnation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.