Una verdad simulada

This is a touchy subject for a lot of people in academic and even more so in non-academic circuit: how do you address a faculty? The answer is often easier in Indian context: in the first person, you address someone as “sir” or “madam,” or in third person, you address someone as “Lastname sir” or “Lastname madam.”

In general, I do not prefer being called “sir” (and especially not the Tamil version: ”saar”), except in official mails, which start with “Dear Sir”. A large number of faculty at IIT, especially the younger faculty, are not picky about what someone calls them. But some may be. In any case, general rules for addressing your faculty:

• The safest option is to call the faculty “Dr. Lastname.” All faculty in IIT are PhDs and using Dr is the most appropriate thing to do.
• Some faculty, who are full professors, want to be addressed as “Professor Lastname.” Technically, a professor is to be addressed thusly (and assistant or associate professors should not). Personally, I haven’t met a single professor who minds being called “Dr. Lastname.”
• If the faculty is OK with it or asked you to do so, you may address them with their first names. I encourage everyone to call me by my first name, Niket. So did my PhD advisor. However, during my graduate school days, a couple of the faculty at Georgia Tech corrected me saying “Its not ‘Jay’, its ‘Dr. Lee’.”
• Calling me “Mr. Niket” or “Mr. Kaisare” is not OK. If your faculty has a PhD, you should not call them “Mr.” Likewise, do not call female faculty “Ms. Lastname” and definitely not call them “Mrs. Lastname.”

In summary, I prefer to be called just ”Niket;” if you must, “Dr. Niket” or “Dr. Kaisare” is also fine; “sir,” I can live with; “Mr. Niket”… not so much.

Tags: General //