<p>^I totally agree.</p>
<p>It is clear, though, that some students (undergrads, mostly, but also beginning grad students) don’t have the proper professional boundaries in place when dealing with their teachers/mentors/advisors, and those students may need to be smacked with a rather blunt cluestick in order to get it. </p>
<p>As a TA last fall at that other school in Cambridge, I was somewhat horrified by some of the emails students would send the professor of the course (who is my thesis advisor) – chatty, stream-of-consciousness missives, some asking questions that were better addressed to me as senior TA, others asking for last-minute deadline extensions, etc. He was always very gracious, but these were really unprofessional intrusions on the life of a very busy senior professor. Knowing how busy he is, and how many emails he gets per hour, I have (I think) never sent him an unsolicited email in five years. I would consider calling him on the phone iff the lab were burning down.</p>
<p>But the key is for students to learn how to develop professional relationships with their mentors. It’s not that professors are exalted gods on puffy white clouds, throwing thunderbolts at groveling students; it’s that they’re accomplished leaders in your field who can make a difference in your career. You want to make and maintain a great impression.</p>