One of the cool things about college is the freedom allotted for us to express ourselves.
We are given carte blanche to let our individuality shine through our appearance.
Standards tend to become more lax as time passes. It used to be that college and university life were highly esteemed realms of academia where it was important to look your best. This meant a shirt and tie and maybe even a blazer for men and, given the standards of the time, a nice, conservative dress for women.
Today, it’s not uncommon to see people in their pajamas, as if they just rolled out of bed 15 minutes before coming to class.
There are also people who appear to have just come from the gym or who are going to the gym right after class.
All standards for personal attire have been sacrificed in the name of comfort and convenience.
These stark differences reflect on societies and the social standards of their respective time periods. While I object to people looking like slobs in class, I don’t think I’d find much support in suggesting that we go back to the days of shirts, ties and dresses – even though I’d be OK with that.
For some fields of study it doesn’t make much sense to require nice or formal clothes (art and painting come to mind). But, it would still be nice to see people look respectable.
However, a school-wide dress code probably wouldn’t hold up well. Enforcement would be tough, and I doubt any school would want to put itself through the hassle.
Despite that, there are a few instances where specific colleges have implemented dress codes – especially business colleges.
Marketing and business teacher education students at Illinois State University were faced with a mandatory business-casual dress code upon their return to school this year.
Complaints arose and the dean has since revised the strict guidelines.
The justification of a dress code is that it helps prepare students for the professional world by creating an environment that parallels demands students will face in the future. Some of us will soon be a part of that professional world, so it’s not such a bad idea to get a little practice first.
Jessica Macklin, a student employee at NIU’s College of Business, said there are no dress codes in the college and no plans to adopt any. However, some undergraduate classes do require students to dress up for presentations.
Maybe this is the happy medium between a college-wide requirement and none at all: an attempt to create just enough experience to prepare you for the real world but not so much as to deprive you of the freedom of college life.
So, my fellow students, enjoy dressing casual for now because you won’t be able to get away with looking like a slob forever.
Source:
(http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/19/bizcasual)

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