{"id":1724,"date":"2007-09-13T08:48:29","date_gmt":"2007-09-13T08:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2007\/09\/13\/the-clothes-make-the-faculty-m\/"},"modified":"2007-09-13T08:48:29","modified_gmt":"2007-09-13T08:48:29","slug":"the-clothes-make-the-faculty-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2007\/09\/13\/the-clothes-make-the-faculty-m\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clothes Make the Faculty Member"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Steinn<\/a>, the Incoherent Ponderer ponders academic clothing<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

For some strange reason, whenever it is not clear whether the attire is formal or informal, I am much more concerned about overdressing, than dressing too informally.<\/p>\n

I think that this is because it’s very difficult to be dressed too informally in academic environment – unless of course it’s a fancy dinner or cocktail party or something. Even if I err on the side of informal dress code, chances are – there is still someone dressed even more informally, likely a senior faculty member. I know some people who seem to be wearing shorts or jeans almost all the time, for example.<\/p>\n

But it’s very easy to go overboard and be “too dressy” while everyone is casual. Perhaps subconsciously I would rather be considered a “slacker”, rather than someone who is too uptight or who is trying to show off?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Steinn offers some thoughts of his own, and a commenter points to the Society of Uncasually Dressed Scientists<\/a>, which features too many lab coats.<\/p>\n

There’s no particular code on my campus in general, and in fact there’s quite a bit of variation, with some of the engineers and older social science types wearing jackets and ties on a regular basis, while other people show up in ratty T-shirts and shorts. I do have some personal dress code rules, though, ranging from the practical to the psychological:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1) No shorts in the lab. If there’s even a chance that I’ll be working in the lab, I don’t wear shorts, no matter how hot it may be. I’m not a chemist, but there are plenty of things in my lab that I’d rather not have in contact with my skin, and you just never know. Plus, I frequently end up crawling around on the floor for one reason or another, and it’s good to have that extra layer of fabric.<\/p>\n

(I don’t enforce this on my students, but I do mention it to them when they start. It continues to amaze me how many of them come to work in shorts and flip-flops, even after that advice.)<\/p>\n

2) No shorts or jeans when teaching. If I know I’m going to be intereacting with students in a formal way, I wear kakhis and a shirt with buttons. It’s less because of the impression it makes on them– I doubt they notice– than it is a reminder to myself.<\/p>\n

If I’m just going to be working in the lab with students, I’ll wear jeans and a T-shirt (usually a T-shirt advertising the competition– I have more Williams shirts than Union ones, still), but if I’m going to be in the classroom, I dress marginally more formally.<\/p>\n

3) Sneakers. I almost always wear sneakers, mostly as a comfort thing, but also because it wouldn’t do to overdo the formal thing. I do have fairly comfortable adult shoes (you have to pay a little more, but Vimes’s Law applies), but I prefer to wear sneakers, and I can do that, because I’m an academic.<\/p>\n

I never wear sandals to work– I don’t even own a pair of sandals, for that matter. And I would absolutely never under any circumstances wear sandals with socks, because I’m not German.<\/p>\n

So, those of you in academia: What’s your dress code?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Steinn, the Incoherent Ponderer ponders academic clothing: For some strange reason, whenever it is not clear whether the attire is formal or informal, I am much more concerned about overdressing, than dressing too informally. I think that this is because it’s very difficult to be dressed too informally in academic environment – unless of… Continue reading The Clothes Make the Faculty Member<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}