ABSTRACT
I started graduate school in September 1982, having just graduated from Eastern Washington University (EWU) with a BA in Government. Upon arriving at Washington State University (WSU), I quickly learned that the relationship between faculty members and graduate students was much less formal than what had been the case at EWU. Most of the professors had names like Mike (Allen), Lew (Carter), Steve (Burkett), Armand (Mauss), Joe (DeMartini), Bob (Meier), Mark (Stafford), and so on. However, there were three exceptions: Dr. Rokeach, Dr. Catton, and Dr. Short. They were the three professors who apparently had no first names (and if they did, it was “Doctor”). I had very little contact with the first two and probably never called them by their first names. Jim was different, but he was Dr. Short to me for several years. It was probably a combination of factors that made me be more formal with him than other professors. As was the case with the other two professors, he was older than most of the faculty; he was a “big name”; I was a bit intimidated by him; and it just plain didn’t seem right to call him by his first name.
