To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About Me

[Kirsteen]

Hey there,

 

Expanding on peachy's post:

To my knowledge there are three tiers of professors (from lowest to highest): Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor.

 

Don't forget, "Emeritus".

 

I had read a UofT Faculty of Medicine bulletin a few months ago and they were going on about the newest folks who had received the above titles. From the article, it seemed that the title of "Professor" is doled out very sparingly. (One of the folks who did attain it this year is Dr. Tirone David, Heart Surgeon extraordinaire.)

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[peachy]

I didn't realize that you had to 'attain' professorship. Is this the way it is for all schools? From the bad profs I've had (I know, not a very representative sample) it seems like they just throw anyone who has a PhD into teaching without any preparation.

Teaching a course doesn't make someone a "professor". Grad students who teach a course, sessional teachers, non-tenure track teachers, and so on, are considered to be "lecturers" and, strictly speaking, should be addressed as "Dr." rather than "Prof."

 

Only individuals hired to "tenure-track positions" move through the ranks of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and then Full Professor. Normally, new professors are hired at the rank of Assistant Professor (they don't have tenure yet) and approximately six years later are given the rank of Associate Professor (at which point they usually earn tenure). Generally, the rank of Full Professor is attained much later (very dependent on the department and the school), and that's when someone is really a "Professor".

[ploughboy]

Teaching a course doesn't make someone a "professor". Grad students who teach a course, sessional teachers, non-tenure track teachers, and so on, are considered to be "lecturers" and, strictly speaking, should be addressed as "Dr." rather than "Prof."

 

To be incredibly nit-picky, they shouldn't be addressed as Dr. if they haven't yet received their doctorate (eg grad students)

 

Continuing on the theme of professorial rankings, I know that some schools occassionally advance their very distinguished profs to the heady, Olympian level of "University Professor" (or another, similar name). At schools which do this, there are usually only half-a-dozen or so profs with that title at any given time.

 

Cheers

[peachy]

To be incredibly nit-picky, they shouldn't be addressed as Dr. if they haven't yet received their doctorate (eg grad students)

Yes, that was an error.