6A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE. 13, 2001
CAMPUS
Faculty fashions differ from casual to conservative when teaching class
By Karen Lucas Special to the Kansan
On a recent Friday morning in Wescoe Hall, Rowland, chairman of the department of communication studies, taught his introductory rhetoric class wearing a blazer, khaki slacks, a sport shirt and oxford shoes. Meanwhile, Joslyn, assistant professor of political science, showed up for class in Blake Hall sporting a casual button-down shirt, khaki shorts and sandals.
When suiting up for the classroom, Robert Rowland and Mark Joslyn couldn't be less alike.
As far as the University is concerned, professors can choose how they want to dress. Jeannette Johnson, assistant to the provost, said she was not aware of any faculty dress code.
Even though Rowland is not required to dress up, as he would be in some other professions, he still is a stickler for conventional dress.
Teachers sport different clothing styles
"I'm about as formal as anybody gets on this campus," said Rowland, who also likes to wear sport jackets with dress shirts and ties—especially bow ties. "It just seems professional."
Yet Rowland said that others shouldn't be expected to adopt his conservative attire.
Although Rowland dresses formally, he is informal in other ways. He said he encouraged students to talk with him and that he also liked to use humor.
"If everybody dressed that way, my style wouldn't be distinctive," he said.
Unlike Rowland,
Joslin never wears ties
when he teaches. And
when it's too cold for
Joslyn also sees his casual attire as going hand in hand with his informal classroom approach.
shorts, he puts on jeans.
"The nice thing about being a professor is you can reveal your personality through your dress," he said.
Corrie Madill, who is tak-
Marie Mauin, who is taking Joslyn's Introduction to U.S. Politics class, said her professor's dressed-down look had a positive effect.
"I think it's cool," said Madill Lawrence sophomore. "It kind of gives the atmosphere a more laid-back feeling."
Not all untenured faculty are comfortable dressing informally for class.
"If I dress nonprofessionally then I think, particularly because of my younger age and gender, that students are more likely to second-guess my authority," said Bayardde Volo, assistant professor of political science
for class.
One of Joslyn's colleagues, Lorraine Bayard de Volo, said that she did not wear jeans to class. Instead, she opts for dressy slacks and a coordinating top and jacket.
professor political science a n d
Ann Cudd, a professor of philosophy who has been at the University since 1988, said that before she got tenure she wore skirts and dresses.
Although Cudd now likes to wear casual clothes—sometimes even jeans—when she teaches a
smaller class like a seminar, she prefers to dress formally when lecturing to a large group.
Linda Trueb, who has taught biology as a faculty member since the early
1970s and was a graduate student at the University before that, said that at one time female professors wore skirts or dresses while male professors wore coats and ties.
Faculty attire, however, has not always ranged from formal to casual.
Similar attire also was once the norm for some graduate
t e a c h i n g
a s s i s :
tants. Johnson said that she and other graduate teaching assistants in the department of Germanic languages and literatures in the mid-1960s were expected to dress up for class.
Yet Glenn Hudspeth's dressed-down look shows how much things have changed. For Monday's class, the GTA in German showed up in cargo shorts, a plaid shirt and athletic shoes.
Hudspeth does not plan to do more conservative duds when he becomes a professor.
"I intend to always dress casually because formality stifles communication and creativity between students and teachers," he said. "One of the reasons I've chosen this career path is so that I don't have to wear a suit and work in a gray cubicle."
Lucas can be reached at 864-4810 or writer@kansan.com
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