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I will be teaching at a four year university as adjunct faculty. Is it okay to have my students to call me Professor LastName, even if I do not have this title formally? If not, what other options do I have? I quite dislike Ms.. At my old college, I had my students call me by my first name, but instead I got a strange combination of "Teacher" and "Ms. FirstName" and "Miss FirstName" which makes me feel like a kindergarten teacher.

(Note: I have seen this question asked in a variety of ways but not in the case where the asker does not have a PhD.)

Buffy
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MathStudent1324
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    An adjunct professor is still a professor, no? – Thomas Jan 04 '19 at 16:48
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    Do also check with the dean and a couple colleagues about the convention in the department. Some places are more formal, some aren't. – Penguin_Knight Jan 04 '19 at 16:52
  • Possible near-duplicate? – Peter K. Jan 04 '19 at 17:16
  • @PeterK. Not a duplicate- this woman teaches at a community college and I at a four year university. – MathStudent1324 Jan 04 '19 at 17:17
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    @MathStudent1324 I suggest reading the linked-to article They Call Me Dr Berry. That seems like a direct answer, even if it's not on this site. – Peter K. Jan 04 '19 at 17:19
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    My friend's father, who is doing some adjunct teaching at our local four-year branch campus goes by Professor Anderson, even though I'm not sure he even holds a Master's. – Azor Ahai -him- Jan 04 '19 at 17:26
  • @MathStudent1324 You're welcome. I thought it relevant. – Peter K. Jan 04 '19 at 17:40
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    If you want formality, and I agree that formality is good in a setting like yours, it ought to work both ways. My students called me Professor Brown or Dr. Brown, and I called them Mr. or Ms Lastname. (Long before Harry Potter, I may add.) – Bob Brown Jan 04 '19 at 18:09
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    "Professor X is my father. Please, call me Legion." – Ink blot Jan 04 '19 at 21:20
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    How old were the students who struggled to call you by your first name? I know that in my classes in college, most people struggled to transition to calling instructors by their first names in the first year, but more or less everyone had adapted by the second. Might be related to how strict public schools in the States are about always, always addressing teachers with a prefix of some sort. – Cooper Jan 04 '19 at 21:50
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    Which country are you teaching in? Please [edit] this to specify because it makes a huge difference. – curiousdannii Jan 05 '19 at 00:22
  • @PeterK. I know the article is probably relevant for OP. But I wonder if she thought about that when asking the question. Because I can't infer some sort of "inferior treatment" from the question, unlike the article. – user4052054 Jan 05 '19 at 05:16

5 Answers5

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To a fairly large extent this can be student driven, actually. The students get into habits of speech. Some places it results in fairly formal address, in which case "Professor" would be fine in the US. Other places it is common to use first names. Your colleagues should be able to tell you the local custom.

In the US, "Professor" has both a generic and a technical sense. Students normally use it as a generic term. Undergraduates, at least. There are some places in which you are Doctor if you have a doctorate and Professor otherwise. Not especially consistent, but as the kids say, "whatever".

There are a few places that impose formal rules, but you'd have been informed of that if it were the case. But, no matter your wishes, the students will likely do what they do.

I once tried to impose "first names only" rules on a set of doctoral students. Some went along ok, but others couldn't make the jump. I was, forever, Professor Buffy to them.

If, on the first day of class, you write your name on the board as "Professor MathStudent1324", most will go along. And if you write "Maria MathStudent1324" you will probably wind up as Maria. But like I said, they will do what feels comfortable to them.

Buffy
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    Yes, it really depends on the students. I'm an adjunct at two colleges, and the students all call me professor. Unfortunately, my family name looks hard to pronounce so they often stumble over it. I might try just putting up my name as "Professor K." in the future, so they know it's OK. :-) – Peter K. Jan 04 '19 at 17:41
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    I sympathize with your students. If I had a professor named Buffy, I would not drop the honorific either :-) – Boris Bukh Jan 04 '19 at 19:06
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    Professor Buffy, eh? Were you teaching in UC Sunnydale? – Ink blot Jan 04 '19 at 21:22
  • @Inkblot, unlikely. – Buffy Jan 04 '19 at 21:31
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I have to add a bit of local flavour to the answers: Whilst in some countries "professor" is just a job title, in others it is an academic title which may not be used unless you earned it. E.g. in Germany it could result in up to a year of prison (see https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/132a.html) in severe cases. Therefore, in Germany you should not give yourself a title (neither "Dr." nor "Professor") unless you are holding the title.

OBu
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  • @Alchimista yes, this will never happen if you are just writing "Professor XYZ" on a blackboard - this is why I cited the "up to". But I'll add a "in severe cases" to avoid misinterpretations. – OBu Jan 05 '19 at 09:41
  • In the Netherlands it is possible to have the job title of professor but not the academic title of doctor. My daily supervisor was prof.ir. XXX – Eric Jan 05 '19 at 14:59
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It all depends on the customs in your institution and in your country.

When I was studying at Cambridge University for my masters in pure mathematics, one course was given by Mr Swinnerton-Dyer - he had never bothered with a mere PhD, was already a Fellow of the Royal Society, and it would have been inconceivable to address him as Professor, a job title to which he was not then entitled. We all called him Mr and everyone was happy.

Now, many years later, I am a student at another distinguished British university, and it would be considered odd not to use first names to address the variously titled lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors with whom we have the honour of studying. If I addressed my supervisor as Professor he would assume that I was using formal language because I was upset about something.

These things are culturally dependent too. I worked at one time in Germany as head of a bilingual team. If they spoke to me in German I was always addressed as "Herr C" but if they happened to be speaking English I was equally invariably known as "Jeremy".

You just have to ask around to find out what is appropriate in your institution.

JeremyC
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One of my colleagues was called Doctor R by the students and he was happy, while they avoided the formality of his family name but showed sufficient respect. Honour on both sides then...

Solar Mike
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Professor 1234 is the proper greeting. You don't need to be permanent faculty or have a Ph.D. to get this title when in class and doing the work of a professor.

guest
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    Please [edit] this to specify which country you're from. This would not be the proper greeting in many countries, for example, Australia. – curiousdannii Jan 05 '19 at 00:17