Teachers talk style

Professors are the people that students depend on for recommendation letter, help on resumes and just general help in the classroom. Not many consider how professors view the way students dress.

John Lindsay, professor of the Department of Psychology, admits that he tries not to let student dress affect how he views them, but there could be a possibility that it does. On the subject of fashion, Lindsay, who has worked at Georgia College for 28 years claims the styles of the 80’s were more “frivolous” than the conservative 90’s. Nowadays he claims there is a nice mix.

“I would always wear a tie while taking a test (as a student),” Lindsay said. “It would make me feel more confident.”

Douglas Goings, professor of Information Systems and Business Communication, says that the way his students dress definitely gives off an impression and through the rest of the course that impression can either be enforced or washed away. Goings insists that business students do not dress any differently from other students unless they are required to for a specific class period. Goings admits that he sometimes wishes they would dress better, but he never comments on their appearance.

“A dress code is definitely not required in the business major, we might lose majors that way. But we should possibly try it,” Goings said.

Goings concedes that he does not dress well for class either. According to him, when he worked at other colleges he would wear a suit every day. Now he wears a polo and no tie on most days.

In the Department of Art, professor of Art History Tina Yarborough admits that the visual appearance of her students does not affect how she views them unless they are giving a formal report, for which she wants them dress in a more professional attire.

“I prefer my students be dressed in the way which they learn best,” she said.

Yarborough also points out that for some of the studio art classes it is required of the students to dress in clothes that they would not mind getting dirty. Yarborough states that she does not care if her students are fashionable or not, she just prefers for them to actually be dressed. She says what she sees students wear is “not different from how we dressed in the 60s.”

All three professors have worked at Georgia College for at least a decade—Goings for 10 years, Lindsay, 28 years, and Yarborough, 16 years. All three have stated that aside from trend, the habits of student dress have not really changed. Every year, even with new students and changing times it can be guaranteed that around 8 a.m. and early morning classes students dress more lazily than for classes later in the afternoon.

Posted by gcsunade on Mar 3 2011. Filed under Close Up, Special Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.