All in the Dress: Dress Code Enforcement for Colleges and Universities

Tap into your memory bank and think about the first day that you actually attended a college class. Somewhere between excited and bored, you’re forced to suffer because you arrived ten minutes early with the intention of impressing your professor. Adversely, maybe you find that you’re panicking and anxious because you’re ten minutes behind schedule; you are positive that your professor is going to pass judgment on you. In either scenario, we find impressions to be of the utmost importance. Your impact is not just a reflection of how and what you say, not is it simply based on how late or early you are. Impressions are greatly influenced by your appearance. Furthermore, generating the right impressions is the key to succeeding in college.

College is not just a place to mix and mingle with and make new friends. Nor is it extended vacation for first-timers out of the house. Just as high school is meant to prepare students for the collegiate world, college is constructed to prepare its students for the post-education and career world. If students are required to put into practice the tasks of their career, they should be required to dress accordingly. It may be argued that students are indeed instructed to dress business like on certain project days; however, in the business world, a person is forever a representation of their workplace and their work. Because it impacts those around in not just a physical way, but in a mental and a physical way as well, all universities and colleges should enforce a dress code that correlates with professionalism and exercises the practice of specific careers.

This should not be seen as an attempt to censure an individual’s freedom of speech. Even Amy L. Trowbridge writes in her article, “Current Psychological Perceptions of Clothing as a Form of Communication in the Business Environment”, that styles of uniforms have changed in order to maintain employee independence. Nevertheless, there should be boundaries set in regards to “professionalism” and “revealing”. Studies have shown that while the more revealing a man or woman dresses does make them more attractive and seductive. Unfortunately, it is the more conservative men and women who are considered more “warm and welcoming”. Having a warmer and more welcoming appearance may make it easier to build liaisons with teachers, attract more potential employers as well, and build a clientele as well.

While people may not shun someone who is dressed down or expletively, M.S Ryan said that “impressions may influence an individual’s desire to initiate, to continue, or to terminate interaction.” Because college is the place where one begins to build the bridges needed to excel in the business world, students should want to be well-prepared and well-represented. Because many students may not be aware of where to start, colleges and universities to set the ground rules for these students to send them on their way.

It's all about standards basically. If we as a people and as educators, lay them out, set them, and explain, I truly feel that the progress and success of our youth would prosper rather than fall victim to the lackluster and lustiness of pop culture.