HUMOROUS POSTINGS BY UNIVERSITY-FACULTY

Various postings on or near the office doors of 261 university faculty were unobtrusively counted and classified These posted items ave rega rded as a means of impersonal communication to all passersby. Humorous postings were divided into cartoons or other humor stimuli, such as j okes, funny articles, or wry and witty sayings. The postings data were compared across broad academic areas and across individual department s within those areas. While over 60 percent of faculty posted somethin g other than their name and office hours, only 42 percent of them Cost ed obvious humor items. Faculty in the Hard Sciences posted more humor items than faculty in any of the other Jive academic areas surveyed. Faculty in the departments of Geology, Drama, and Astronomy posted the most items overall. Management department faculty defied the stereoty pe of the humorless and sober Business professor, while the absence of humorous postings in the other four departments in Business confirmed it. Interviews with faculty who posted and those who did not post rev ealed an interesting variety of reasons for both choices.