At 12:50 PM 9/2/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Well said, Gaylord.  I hope your message puts an end to this discussion.
>Thanks for all your good work throughout the years - without it some of us
>might not be here today.

[snip]

Amen. Gay has an institutional memory for our group, the business school,
the university, the entire discipline, and the ALSB that I would dearly
love to store on my hard drive. Gay hired me.  He had a vision for our LEB
group, and while I may not have contributed much to the realization of his
vision, his vision was to have the LEB faculty (then Business Law) treated
the same *and* be held to the same standards as other business school
faculty. Although many other business school faculty have a grossly
inflated view of the education they received in their Ph.D. programs, it is
increasingly the case at U.T. that most of the new Ph.D. hires can
legitimately be referred to as true scientific-method scholars.  One thing
we have found is that our latest hires who have both Ph.D.s and JDs seem to
understand the academic game a little better.  But that does not change the
fact that in academia, the JD does entitle one to the title Dr.

As an aside, I am in my second year of serving on the university's
Intellectual Property Committee (one of the few committee assignments I've
ever had that is truly worthwhile).  We receive invention disclosures from
the scientists and engineers on campus, decide whether the invention is
likely to be patentable, and whether it has enough commercial potential for
the university to pursue.  Another member is Mark Lemley from our Law
School, who happens to be one of the smartest people I've ever run across.
On the committee, he was referred to as Mr., because that was his Law
School title.  I was referred to as Dr.  Although Mark didn't care (he's
one of those rare law school people at a very high level who is totally
without pretention, much less the commonly encountered arrogance).  But I
couldn't stand being Dr. while he was Mr., so I had the committee chairman
change me to Professor.  Within the business school, however, I am Dr.  To
my students, I always make sure that they understand that my title is
Professor; to me, that signifies a much higher calling than Dr. Again,
though, take Gay's words to heart; in many schools it matters a lot, and
the JD does entitle one to be called Dr.  Don't let the petty bastards in
the administration give you less.

John







John R. Allison
The Spence Centennial Professor
Graduate School of Business
University of Texas at Austin
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Phone 512-471-9435
FAX 512-471-0587