Women’s soccer wins fourth straight - Pg.16
THE HAWK September 17, 2014
The Student Newspaper of Saint Joseph’s University | Volume XCIV | Est. 1929 | www.hawkhillnews.com
YOU CAN CALL ME
[INSERT NAME HERE] How to properly address professors LEIGH ANNE TIFFANY ’15 Assistant News Editor
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Dr.” or “Professor”? “Mrs.” or “Ms.”? “First name” or “last name”? As the semester kicks into high gear, students are left with one perennial question: What should I call my professor? While the traditional conventions of calling a teacher with a doctoral degree “Dr.” and a teacher with a master’s degree “professor” still stand in many classes, there is still a lot of gray area when it comes to addressing one’s instructor. Some professors, for instance, hold a doctorate but prefer to be referred to by their first name. J. Michael Lyons, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of communication studies, said he asks his students to simply call him “Mike.” “It just feels right,” Lyons said. “It fits my personality and it goes along with the culture I try to create inside and outside the classroom – that we are in the process of learning together.” Lyons said that many factors, such as “educational background, gender, age, and the professor’s idea of what the proper decorum of a classroom should be,” all contribute to the choice of “Dr.” versus “first name.” “Our classes in communication studies are very collaborative, our classrooms are set up in a non-traditional, less formal way with moveable tables, even some couches, so it just feels right to me that the way we address each other should be less formal,”
Lyons said. “I like to call students by their first name, why shouldn’t they call me by my first name?” Assistant professor in the department of history Amber Abbas, Ph.D., on the other hand, prefers to be called “Dr. Abbas.” “I tell my students on the first day that it rhymes with ‘the boss’ so they won’t forget,” Abbas said. “I spent eight years in graduate school becoming a specialist in my field and ultimately earning my Ph.D. I like the way this title acknowledges that process.” “Professor” is also acceptable to Abbas, though “Ms.” is definitely not preferred in her classroom. “I like the way both ‘Dr.’ and ‘Professor’ are gender-neutral, and acknowledge an individual’s status based on educational achievement and expertise rather than gender identity,” Abbas said. Using proper titles in the classroom can also be good practice for addressing professionals in the real world. Ruben Mendoza, Ph.D., assistant professor in the decision and system sciences department, said that the use of titles within business classes is a lesson in and of itself, teaching students the proper way to interact professionally with coworkers and superiors. “My insistence on undergraduate students using my title, which by the way, I earned, I did not inherit and did not win in a lottery, is an attempt to help them avoid these mistakes in their professional lives,”
Tightening up
New guidelines enforced for Federal Work Study program ERIN RAFTERY ’15 News Editor
Photo by Weiyi (Dawn) Cai ’15
Mendoza said. Beyond the choice between “Dr.” or “first name,” students also must navigate the minefield of how to speak with professors in-person and via email. Abbas includes a communications policy in her syllabus, stating that emails should begin with a professional salutation like “Dear” and have no text abbreviations. For Mendoza, undergraduate students have become far too casual with how they approach professors. “It is not appropriate to send an email which starts with ‘hey’ or ‘yo’…or to barge into someone’s office without knocking,” Mendoza said. “I often hear students refer to me and other faculty by our last names only…this befuddles me. It feels either disrespectful or like a leftover from high school.” Lyons, on the other hand, said that Saint Joseph’s University students can be cordial to a fault. “One of the first things I noticed when I got to St. Joe’s was how incredibly courteous the students are here, so if anything I felt my task was to loosen students in my classes up a little bit,” Lyons said. “I think my ideas about e-mail are kind of non-traditional too. I know a lot of people get bent out of shape if students’ emails don’t have the proper salutation…emails aren’t letters, and I don’t think that they need to look like letters or sound like letters.” Continued PROFESSORS, pg. 3 Due to budgetary issues with the Federal Work Study program in spring 2014, new guidelines have been set in place to prevent further problems. However, some of these procedures have been problematic for the faculty members who oversee their respective department’s Work Study programs and students alike. Last spring, Federal Work Study students received notification through an email from Student Records and Financial Services (SRFS) on March 17 that Work Study funds were nearly depleted, and that when the money ran out, they must stop working. This complication was resolved on March 20, when SRFS sent another email explaining that additional institutional aid was being used so students could continue working for the remainder of the year without depleting the Work Study funds. Continued WORK STUDY, pg. 3
Photo by Weiyi (Dawn) Cai ’15
Photo by Alexandra Otero ’17
First impressions Students provide feedback on new campus dining options GARRETT MILEY ’15 Editor in Chief Closed down for the summer, the storefronts on 54th Street at the corner of City Avenue and Old Lancaster Road now have new occupants. Formerly Cosi and Starbucks, the spaces are now occupied by newcomer Greens to Go and a revamped Super Starbucks. Starbucks, previously located on the corner of City Avenue and Old Lancaster Road, has now moved across the street to the former home of Cosi. A much more spacious location, this Super Starbucks has additional food options, significantly more seating and additional registers for taking orders. Despite the positive aesthetic changes, some students have complaints about the change of service. “I like it better than the old one,” said Anthony Dellapia, ’17. “It’s bigger, it’s nicer, and it’s more comfortable. [The service] is kind of a problem; I don’t like how their service is. To get your drinks takes quite a long time, more than usual. I think they definitely could have better service to speed up the process.” The new, spacious location paired with a more central spot near Hawks’ Landing and the university Bookstore has attracted an influx of customers, resulting in longer lines and longer waiting times for students ordering drinks and food. Continued DINING, pg. 3