THE PROFESSOR IS IN

The relaxed nature of e-mail is just one aspect of the medium that has eased student-faculty interaction.

E-mail has also made addressing logistical questions easier and, for some faculty members, has changed the types of discussions they have in face-to-face meetings with students.

According to Palmer, e-mail helps students communicate with their professors outside the classroom.

“It’s an around-the-clock system...part of a society of 24-hour work, where none of us are away from obligations for very long,” Palmer says.

But professors say e-mail has not directly replaced office hours and that the two can serve different functions.

Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature Richard J. Tarrant, who teaches Literature and Arts C-61, “The Rome of Augustus,” says e-mail has not reduced the number of students who attend his office hours and that some students send e-mails in addition to going to office hours.

“Many students seem to feel that they should have a serious issue or a whole series of questions before coming to office hours,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Professor Andrew D. Gordon, who teaches Historical Studies A-14, “Japan: Tradition and Transformation,” says that he has not seen a noticeable change in attendance at his office hours despite an increase in e-mail use.

“I do think there’s a local campus culture that office hours are not heavily utilized,” he says.

Professor Mikael Adolphson, who also teaches Historical Studies A-14 wrote in an e-mail that visits to office hours “are usually prompted by more complex questions” that are difficult to resolve over e-mail.

“Those who come to my office usually ask more personal and more over-arching questions about their own academic careers,” he added.

For Music department Chair Thomas F. Kelly, who teaches Literature and Arts B-51, “First Nights: Five Performance Premieres,” meeting with students is one of the perks of being a professor.

“I like when people come to shoot the breeze,” he says. “A lot of people don’t believe that. Sometimes it is nice to have friends, actual human beings, out there [in lecture].”

But several professors say that even with the regularity of office hour attendance, for many students e-mail is the correspondence medium of choice.