For what it's worth, when I went to school in New England we always called our professors "professors." When I taught in the government department at the University of Texas, my colleagues and I were routinely called "Dr.". Memories are vague, but I believe I was more often called Professor when I taught at the law school in Texas briefly. In Maryland, I have been called both. Granted this does not explain what happened in Dover, but I'm wondering whether this is largely a regional thing.
Mark Graber >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/21/05 4:13 PM >>> For what it's worth, there is a good argument for limiting the term "Doctor" to physicians (including, by the way, physicians without a "doctorate" such as British physicians with only an undergraduate medical degree), and referring to all non-physician Ph.D.'s as Mr. or Professor or the like. This is, for example, the traditional practice at Yale. In fact, there's a certain nice reverse snobbery to this usage. That said, all I can add is the following entirely facetious observation: Here we are contemplating whether a particular phenomenon (the use of the terms Dr. and Prof.) is (a) essentially random, (b) the mechanical product of underlying variables such as the self-description of the witnesses, the practice of the attorneys, etc., (c) an unconscious tic, or (d) dare I say it, the result of the judge's "intelligent design." Escher would be proud. Perry ******************************************************* Perry Dane Professor of Law Rutgers University School of Law -- Camden 217 North Fifth Street Camden, NJ 08102 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.camlaw.rutgers.edu/bio/925/ Work: (856) 225-6004 Fax: (856) 969-7924 Home: (610) 896-5702 ******************************************************* _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.