I've been pondering my wardrobe options lately.
Does it matter what you wear in the classroom? What about to faculty meetings? Do people even notice?
Certainly our student take note of what we wear (I know I did when I was an undergrad). Are jeans okay on a prof? Does it make a difference if you are at a research institution or a PUI? What about faculty rank?
Do appearances matter to anyone, or am I just entering into my annual I'm-going-to-overthink-everything phase?
9 comments:
My university's administration tried to sneak a dress code for professors (I kid you not) by us. So apparently clothes do matter.
I routinely wear jeans to class, with a nice top and shoes (I don't wear sneakers to class).
Wear whatever you are comfortable in. I'd say no low-cut tops or revealing too much skin in general, but apart from that, whatever you like is fine.
Take one look at the man in surfer shorts and sandals, and you would know there is no dress code where I work!
Does it matter? Of course. But it seems to matter more that the clothing somehow matches the person's personality, and that both convey a sense of competence and professionalism in the classroom.
I wear jeans and a decent shirt to class. I was trained at a place where some of the faculty in certain sub-disciplines wore shorts and t-shirts to class (yes, even some of the women). Of course, it was a very laid-back campus, literally located on the beach, and the reputation of the department was so high that I think most faculty felt no need to impress anybody. When you're among the best in the world, you don't need to impress anybody with clothes.
So, when I started my job at a place that isn't quite so high and mighty, a few people expressed surprise that I was wearing tennis shoes to class. My reply was that by the standards of faculty in my PhD program I was actually over-dressed.
As a young female, I consistently get commentary from parents that I don't look old enough to be faculty...and students sometimes get too chatty and tell me things they shouldn't. I find an easy fix is to dress up just a little bit. If I wear jeans, they are dark wash or trouser cut. Otherwise, it's dresses, skirts, or slacks.
I'm often confused for a graduate student, so I try and wear my "nice" t-shirts when I teach.
get the same reactions from students/ parents as Doc, so I too am rethinking my wadrode this fall, trying to update and make a pledge to wearing no jeans or t-shirts to school this year.
we'll see how it actually goes...
In my opinion, the most important thing is that you don't wear the same thing several days in a row.
As an undergrad (and grad student) I've noticed professors with questionable fashion sense. But the professors that were most distracting in terms of wardrobe were the ones that wore the same thing frequently.
I just hopped over from...somewhere...distracted today, so a few weeks late to comment.
As a grad student I wear jeans and a t-shirt to teach lab sections. Lab coat if I want to look spiffy or we're doing something dirty.
I don't remember what my advisor normally wears when she lectures--it's probably jeans and a t-shirt. I do know that today we ended up wearing matching shirts from an outreach program. Fortunately from different years, so they are different colors, but she said she had thought about wearing the same year as me when she grabbed a shirt this morning. That would have been funny and awkward.
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