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When an individual attends class, he or she most likely expects to see a professor lecturing, donned in work-appropriate apparel as they should be, and students dressed in similarly decent attire while in the presence of a distinguished academic. Instead, many students seem to choose the wrong kind of clothing to wear in a classroom or any academic vicinity for that matter.
Many students fail to recognize the value of the classroom setting. In previous generations, students appreciated the value of their education and respected the classroom on the same level of a church. Now, though, students drudge to class, complain about having to go and don inappropriate classroom attire.
It is time to take part in the liberal arts tradition of preserving the past. Students, like their parents and grandparents, should treat the classroom with the respect it deserves. Formalizing apparel worn to class is the first step in this transformation.
Class is not the occasion for belly tops, low-cut shirts or booty shorts. Nor is it the place for cut-off muscle shirts that cut so far in nipples are visible or pants that show off boxers.
Articles of clothing such as this give off a negative impression to professors and classmates. While this may not be apparent to everyone, professors do make assumptions about students based on their apparel. Sometimes it is easy to forget that professors need to be able to focus just as much as students do. Students showing up to class with backless shirts or clothing that reveals their undergarments are not conducive to a productive classroom environment. It can be distracting depending on what a student is wearing.
Classy Mondays have started to become a trend at Occidental, but it really should not stop there. Donning work-esque attire on a daily basis to class, brings back a certain level of seriousness, class and respect to the classroom.
But the classroom is not the only place where modest attire is absent. Respect should be given to all areas where academia is flourishing. Appropriate clothing is also missing from the library, where students go to further their education and find a space to concentrate. Here, going to the level of formal clothing may be extreme, but it is distracting to have students traipsing around the library in revealing clothing.
Students can help preserve the academic space by learning the difference between what is appropriate for class and what should be saved for a night out because the classroom is a space where professors, students and intellectual inquiry are to be respected.
This editorial represents the collective opinion of the Occidental Weekly Editorial Board. Each week, the editorial board will publish its viewpoint on a matter relevant to the Occidental Community.
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