Uggs and hoodies ain’t so bad!

What we wear can say a lot about who we are. That guy strolling to the library in a Ron Paul T-shirt is saying that he is a libertarian, while the girl in class in pajamas is saying that she is too lazy to bother looking nice in the morning. What you wear can also say a lot about the kind of school environment you are in.\nIf you cannot wear Hollister-brand clothing because it has “shown an unusual degree of antagonism to the name of Christ,” you probably go to some obscure private religious college like Bob Jones University. On the other hand, if you go to a large public university like IU, the very notion of a dress code is probably entirely foreign.\nIn 1969, the landmark case of Tinker v. Des Moines made clear that a student’s right to dress freely was protected under the first amendment when it could be considered speech. We view this as a good thing, but is there a downside to this freedom? Can the messages we wear on clothes be distracting to the learning process? What about people who wear clothes with anti-gay messages and claim they are protected as expressing religious free speech?\nSeveral Supreme Court justices have, over the years, narrowed considerably what dress can be considered speech. That’s why some public institutions have had some legal success in battling short skirts.\nPrivate universities have often gone much farther, using dress codes to encourage “professionalism.” Michael J. Sorrell, interim president of Paul Quinn College, made a business casual dress code a part of his plan to put the university back on track this year. Morale had been pretty low at Paul Quinn College after it was put on a one-year probation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, but Sorrel is already restructuring the majors and making class attendance mandatory, attempting to force students to look nice and really make an effort to contribute to a better school. \nThis is a question most IU students probably don’t worry about: What if public universities decided they, too, could improve the campus environment by mandating a dress code? Not too far away in Bloomington, Ill., Illinois State University has decided to require business casual dress for all its marketing majors starting this semester. School officials think this will improve the attitude of students. As Tim Longfellow, the marketing department chairperson, says: “The way you dress says something about you.”\nUnfortunately, that is exactly why his policy doesn’t make sense. People aren’t Paulites because someone forced them to wear Ron Paul shirts and, following similar logic, people with intolerant worldviews will not be changed by having to conform to a dress code. \nThe Kelley School of Business has some of the most popular programs here at IU. Let’s thank our lucky stars that neither our marketing majors nor any of us will have to waste our time following a backwards policy.