Carter F. S
Educator, Consultant, Coauthor The Emergence of The Relationship Economy
What's the Proper Attire in Higher Education?
I happened across this quote and would love your insight/input:
"In the academic world there is an inverse relationship between appearance and perceived effectiveness. It’s been my experience that the better dressed and groomed you are, the more likely your peers are to consider you less competent. In the private sector, good looking, well dressed people are perceived as more competent, and they are more likely to be paid more and promoted faster."
Having worked for the government (20 years), private sector (2 years) and in higher education (face to face and online for a combined 4 years), I suspect there may be something to this.
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2009/06/01/kelly
What do you think?
Good Answers (11)
Jeffrey R
Assistant Professor at Austin Peay State University
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I'm not sure I agree with the comments regarding the private sector. I also wonder if it's the job of a professor to model proper attire. Perhaps in the proprietary institutions, but in the public and private ones I'm not so sure.
Ultimately I think it falls to the institution, does it have a dress code? If so, professors are going to have to be in compliance. Also though, the discipline, if those who believe we are to model proper attire, what that is for business majors is going to be substantively different than for cj majors, or ministry students, or even nurses (who tend to wear scrubs during class and during clinicals).
There is a difference between faculty and staff and I think that's ok because they have different roles to fulfill. In the end though I think it's what the individual finds most comfortable and what they're wearing I don't think has anything to do with their level of competence or contributions.
It depends on the institution. I've had experience where it is normally business casual. There was another institution that made business dress (shirt and tie for men, dress or pants suit/blazer for women) mandatory between Labor Day and Memorial day. I've also seen some adjunct instructors come in wearing jeans.
Really, it depends on the institution. Most that I have worked at are fairly business casual, but as a career advisor, I feel I need to model appropriate workplace attire. So I usually end up being more dressed up than others on my campus. Although in academia, you have some people who take it as a point of pride to look frumpy and ill kept. Who knows why?
Joe K
Freelance Web and Graphic Designer, Video Editor, Multimedia Specialist, and Internet Marketing Consultant
Where I teach at ITT Technical Institute, the dress is shirt and tie, but business casual Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Thank you Laura for bringing up the good point of setting an example to students about proper business dress. As important as academia is, it is important to remember that the ultimate goal of higher education is to prepare students for the world. Unfortunately, many times this goal is lost amidst the theoretical pursuits.
Clarification added 5 months ago:
I also wanted to add that the inverse relationship DOES match my perceptions. Those professors who are impeccably groomed appear to me to be less concerned with intellectual, but rather physical or practical matters, and thus less appropriately engaged in their field. Of course, that would be a stereotype, but there are some good examples that fit it: Einstein for one.
Phillip B
at WP Carey School of Business, Arizona State University
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Note that the advice is specific to graduating PhD's. Even tamong this group it cannot apply to all. A promising English professor will tend to dress differently than one hoping teach marketing. And accomplished professors they may wish to emulate look a bit different in Boston than they do in LA.
As for academia looking down on the well groomed and well dressed - -every industry and organization has cultural norms and you must be sensitive to "fitting in." Although the thought that the well groomed are signaling their incompentence is silly, those who are not tuned into their professional environment are going to have problems well beyond their attire.
Alice D
Human Rights Defender and Educator, substitute teacher, defrosting cold cases!
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Hi Carter,
Being representative for the quality education Virginia Tech offers the students is important so every faculty member who teaches wears a different attire than on days they do reseach and are not visibly representing the college. During teaching hours you will see faculty in suits, pants with shirt (tie not mandatory), dresses, etc. During days of research or office hours when most faculty is staying in their office you will see jeans and polo shirts, capri's and blouses.
Personally, I believe that being well dressed/properly dressed does not have anything to do with my competency as a teacher but with my professional ethics and attitude. As soon as students get to know you they will easily cut through any masquerading by attire so in the end the suit will not save you from the absentees and the yawners!
A lot depends on the culture of your school, the level of education (grad school may expect a nicer wardrobe than undergraduate school), your major and myriad other factors. I dressed in shorts and Tshirts, jeans and sweaters or sweatshirts, as weather appropriate, while getting my first BA. It was a large campus and I had to walk to class. Showing up in nicely pressed slacks, dressy shirts and nice shoes would have been extremely impractical and I would have been judged as a prissy, pretentious and impractical by most peers and probably the faculty as well. Many faculty would dress on the casual end of business-like. But they had the luxury of driving to their buildings and spending all day in an office or classroom probably in that same building. Students did not. Rain, snow, sleet, heat, what have you - we walked a few miles per day between buildings. We dressed accordingly.
When I went back to school to earn a second BA, I generally dressed business casual. Not to impress my classmates or instructors. I did it because I worked in an office all day before attending one class in one building during the evenings. Changing would have been inconvenient. Depending on their wardrobe requirements at their "professional" job, some instructors arrived in business casual or professional attire. Some instructors were full-time faculty. The older ones wore somewhat dressy clothes to teach. The younger ones wore jeans. Maybe it's generational (I'm in my mid 30s), but I am no more impressed by someone in a suit than someone in jeans. Especially if the suit wearer knows no more and behaves no more impressively than the jeans wearer. In fact, I'm more likely to assume that the dressier a person is, the more they may be making up for a lack of something in some other area.
I'll be going back to school this fall. On a large university campus where classes may interfere with my ability to hold a full time job. I am willing to bet I'll be showing up for most classes in jeans and weather-appropriate shirts. I don't want to risk mud, sweat and grass stains on my nice clothes while hiking from the student parking lot to whatever building(s) hold my classes. If anyone think the less of me for being practical, they are probably the type of person I'd never want to work for, anyway. But maybe that's just my age talking...
Carter:
After 32 years in the political world of local government and 13 years in higher academia, I would have to agree with this assessment of the perceptions, although I do not agree that it is true. During those 32 years I wore a coat and tie each day and was quite comfortable in that attire. I wore a tie everyday in my role as academic administrator and was once called to task by a faculty member. The faculty member asked why I wore that tie every day when we did not have to according to our dress code of "business casual." There was a subtle intimation that I was making them, the faculty, look bad when they were adhering to the letter of the dress code. My answer was my belief that people in general, meaning the students and our many contacts, generally have a better perception of people in more responsible positions if they dress to the level of the job. We had some give and take on the issue, but I am sure I did not sway that person the least bit and I continued to wear my tie.
Gerald
As a woman who worked in the IT sector for over 10 years, I can honestly say that I haven't gotten out of the habit of wearing khakis and casual shirts to work. I worked in the financial sector prior to working in IT and I used to spend outlandish amounts of money on clothing because I thought it was a best practice. Now, in retrospect, I miss my clothing, but don't miss the price tags. Khakis and dress shirts suit just fine. I would, however, like to go to work not looking like an "IT guy" just once...LOL
I work part time at two different universities. I have noticed very low standards for dress codes, including that of some professors, who think nothing of showing up in jeans and sandals. Students are allowed to come to class in short shorts, flip-flops, and women with flimsy and revealing tops. As a member of the "older generation", I find this deplorable.
However, I am not sure the few individuals who dress appropriately are looked upon as any less efficient - I wonder only if anyone notices any more!
It depends on the institutional culture, your age/gender, and the content of the class, and your personal style. When I teach "cooler" classes on popular culture, I tend to dress a little trendier than when I teach classes on political science. But I am always careful to make sure what I have on is not too short, too tight, or simply too distracting. You want to make sure your students are concentrating on the content of your teaching, not your clothes.
More Answers (10)
Michael S
Director of Recruitment at the College of Saint Elizabeth
Best Answers in: Education and Schools (1), Job Search (1)
As someone who has spent the last 21 years in higher education, my experience has been that this description has some merit in terms of faculty, but little merit in terms of staff and administration. In my experience, the faculty/non-faculty variance is greater than the institutional variance.
I think many young faculty may dress more formally due to the proximity of age to their students. When I first started out, I wanted to be able to distinguish myself from the students. Now that I am old, I guess I can dress down when I teach? Seriously though, I am an adjunct teacher for a graduate school so I end up wearing whatever I wear to work, which is usually business/business casual depending on my meeting schedule that day.
I have to agree with Michael. Staff and administration are held to a different standard than faculty. Maybae the motto "Dress for the job you want" has something to do with it, since the same seems to go for adjuct faculty versus tenured faculty.
Patrick S
History & Government Educator, Coach, Trainer, International Corporate Security Consultant
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Lots of good advice here about fitting in with the campus norm ... My view is that it should be a balance of the persona you want to project, formal enough to convey "in charge" and your personal comfort. I think "dressing up" is a great way to model good professional behavior, no matter what the subject matter.
Sounds like liberal arts thinking - where a summer consulting gig is typically at 7-11.
For faculty and staff with technical skills with a dollar value, professional dress is generally understood.
That's a hard question to answer. I guess I will have to say I see some intelligent professors in casual attire every now and then, but I think I respect those who dress appropriately for work more. Maybe it's because I came from a business background.
i keep failing to get his bit of the site to work. Its true of the older academics, not of those we have comr to know as "the Young Fogies". Suits are sneaking back in!
Jason A
LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD - http://LinkedInForJobSeekers.com
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I went to school in Idaho, at a casual state college... very different attire than at other schools I have visited.
I highly recommend asking an image consultant - my recommendations below (Anna's URL and her website).
Links:
Jason A also suggests this expert on this topic:
Susan S
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., financial marketing writer.
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I would agree. My experience was that my preferred manner of dress worked against me.
Allan R
Director of Technology
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Funny you say that. IBM has been a staunch believer in the dress shirt and blue suit. Sun Microsystems was business casual.
Hmmmm....where are they now.
Now in academia, you are correct - but notice where the best and brightest are now coming from. Read: not here in the US with liberal academic standards (including dress) but internationally, like India, where discipline and dress are held to very high standards.
