Yesterday’s geography student sent me another e-mail. In it, he refers to me as “a gal.” Like in “I can see you are a Tuesday/Thursday gal” (meaning that I teach on these days.)
I find this completely inappropriate. Unless this student is 90, something is wrong here.
Something is wrong as in the student has never learned any manners.
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I think at this point you have a wierd student,rather than a ‘geography’ student – I don’t think ALL the wierds end up in Geography, I’ve met a few in other departments…
I would be very tempted to email back and say something like “Dear Mr X, it appears that you sent a message intended for one of your friends to me in error; checking addresses is an important skill in a professional context, such as a university. Yours…”
It would make me feel better even if it baffled rather than educated the student.
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I’m also voting for this suggestion.
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Totally inappropriate. Would he have addressed a male faculty member with some kind of term like that in an e-mail? I thought it was bad when students write e-mails like they are texting their friends!
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my answer to “gal” is, “sure, boi”.
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I’m a professor, too. I get called “Mrs.” frequently and “girl/gal” less often. Two issues, 1) patriarchy. I don’t wear my wedding ring all the time. Why am I getting “Mrs. So and so” instead of “Prof/Dr. So-and-so”? 2) Laziness/informality encouraged by our text-based life.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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