I'm not sure why I shouldn't dress down, but I know I would feel more uncomfortable if I did
There has been some talk recently on imposing a dress code in tertiary institutions. To the best of my knowledge most tertiary institutions do have some form of a dress code, so the question is whether they should enforce it.
A common defence against such an enforcement is that students at this age should be able to make decisions for themselves. To be more specific, they should have the liberty to make such decisions for themselves and the university ought not to take away this liberty from students. I believe in this concept of liberty. However, I also believe this case from liberty should be retracted if it can be shown that it harms others. While the school can't force you to come on time for lectures, lecturers do have the right to bar late students from entering because they are disruptive to others. Insofar as one agrees with this case, one also agrees that individual liberty has to be retracted for the sake of the public. So while theoretically one has the liberty to appear 30 minutes late for a lecture, if the lecturer has a rule that stipulates latecomers cannot enter for a lecture the rule takes away this liberty, because this liberty is harmful to others, nevermind the fact that you've already harmed yourself by missing the first 30 minutes of the lecture.
The liberty to dress as one wishes against the institution's dress code has also a harmful effect with regard to the school's reputation. If you have no sense of propriety or self-image the case is closed and one is free to dress as one wishes; however the school has an image to portray to the general public, to foreign students, to visiting scholars, and so on. A student spoils this image by , amongst other things, dressing inappropriately, and therefore there is a harmful effect on the school's reputation.
One can point out then that since the school does not enforce its dress code, it shows that they are not particularly concerned with inappropriate dressing as producing a harmful effect on its image. Therefore no harm is done to others. On the point of harm to others, it could be noted that wearing inappropriate attire to school offends the aesthetic sensibilities of people like myself. However such a note is trivial and is self-centered; one can equally argue that dressing according to the school's dress code offends the aesthetic sensibilities of those who don't, and there would be an intractable disagreement. Rather, it should be noted that harm could still be done even if the school does not enforce its dress code. On this note I would say that the school authorities, by their inaction to prevent such a harm, however subtle, are as liable to fault as those who dress inappropriately to school. At the very least, if a dress code is not to be enforced on the basis that deviation from the dress code produces no harm to anyone, then the dress code should be unequivocally retracted from the school rules lest a case of ambiguous standards should arise. If no external harm is incurred in students arriving late for lectures then there shouldn't be a rule that tells students to be on time for lectures.
Another defence against a move to enforce a dress code is the fact that it is almost impossible to enforce in any substantial way. I agree that a school-wide enforcement is hard, but a case of difficulty in enforcement hardly provides a justification for students to take advantage of the lack of enforcement. On this matter I would also like to say that enforcement can be substantiated not only be physically catching students who disobey the rules, but by introducing punishments that would deter potential mis-dressers. The offense could be noted down in the offender's graduation transcript, for example, and if such a measure is put in place I am sure the number of people wearing slippers, singlets, miniskirts to school would decrease drastically.
What if the persons who are charged with enforcing the school rule is caught breaking the rule him or herself? That is to say, what if lecturers and tutors themselves dress inappropriately? If that is the case then they themselves should be taken to task. However to use them as a justification to deviate from the dress code seems quite unreasonable to me, as the way they dress could be influenced by the prevalence of sloppy-dress culture in the school. If there were an active, enforced dress code then they probably wouldn't dress casually, so the issue really is the presence of an active, enforced dress code. By the way, using the prevalence of sloppy-dress culture in the school to say that "there's nothing wrong" is essentially reasoning what is the case, ought also to be the case, and I think it is self-evident why such a way of reasoning is flawed.
All that being said, I think the baseline case for dressing appropriately to school really is that a tertiary institution is a place of higher learning for young adults. It is a place where there should be a certain formality governing interactions, not only between students and professors but students and students as well. If such a formality is disregarded then it is a slippery slope down towards treating the institution as a second home, not as an institution. So what is wrong with that? I'm not too sure myself, just that I know if I start wearing slippers and short pants to school I wouldn't feel like I'm going to school for lessons anymore.
A common defence against such an enforcement is that students at this age should be able to make decisions for themselves. To be more specific, they should have the liberty to make such decisions for themselves and the university ought not to take away this liberty from students. I believe in this concept of liberty. However, I also believe this case from liberty should be retracted if it can be shown that it harms others. While the school can't force you to come on time for lectures, lecturers do have the right to bar late students from entering because they are disruptive to others. Insofar as one agrees with this case, one also agrees that individual liberty has to be retracted for the sake of the public. So while theoretically one has the liberty to appear 30 minutes late for a lecture, if the lecturer has a rule that stipulates latecomers cannot enter for a lecture the rule takes away this liberty, because this liberty is harmful to others, nevermind the fact that you've already harmed yourself by missing the first 30 minutes of the lecture.
The liberty to dress as one wishes against the institution's dress code has also a harmful effect with regard to the school's reputation. If you have no sense of propriety or self-image the case is closed and one is free to dress as one wishes; however the school has an image to portray to the general public, to foreign students, to visiting scholars, and so on. A student spoils this image by , amongst other things, dressing inappropriately, and therefore there is a harmful effect on the school's reputation.
One can point out then that since the school does not enforce its dress code, it shows that they are not particularly concerned with inappropriate dressing as producing a harmful effect on its image. Therefore no harm is done to others. On the point of harm to others, it could be noted that wearing inappropriate attire to school offends the aesthetic sensibilities of people like myself. However such a note is trivial and is self-centered; one can equally argue that dressing according to the school's dress code offends the aesthetic sensibilities of those who don't, and there would be an intractable disagreement. Rather, it should be noted that harm could still be done even if the school does not enforce its dress code. On this note I would say that the school authorities, by their inaction to prevent such a harm, however subtle, are as liable to fault as those who dress inappropriately to school. At the very least, if a dress code is not to be enforced on the basis that deviation from the dress code produces no harm to anyone, then the dress code should be unequivocally retracted from the school rules lest a case of ambiguous standards should arise. If no external harm is incurred in students arriving late for lectures then there shouldn't be a rule that tells students to be on time for lectures.
Another defence against a move to enforce a dress code is the fact that it is almost impossible to enforce in any substantial way. I agree that a school-wide enforcement is hard, but a case of difficulty in enforcement hardly provides a justification for students to take advantage of the lack of enforcement. On this matter I would also like to say that enforcement can be substantiated not only be physically catching students who disobey the rules, but by introducing punishments that would deter potential mis-dressers. The offense could be noted down in the offender's graduation transcript, for example, and if such a measure is put in place I am sure the number of people wearing slippers, singlets, miniskirts to school would decrease drastically.
What if the persons who are charged with enforcing the school rule is caught breaking the rule him or herself? That is to say, what if lecturers and tutors themselves dress inappropriately? If that is the case then they themselves should be taken to task. However to use them as a justification to deviate from the dress code seems quite unreasonable to me, as the way they dress could be influenced by the prevalence of sloppy-dress culture in the school. If there were an active, enforced dress code then they probably wouldn't dress casually, so the issue really is the presence of an active, enforced dress code. By the way, using the prevalence of sloppy-dress culture in the school to say that "there's nothing wrong" is essentially reasoning what is the case, ought also to be the case, and I think it is self-evident why such a way of reasoning is flawed.
All that being said, I think the baseline case for dressing appropriately to school really is that a tertiary institution is a place of higher learning for young adults. It is a place where there should be a certain formality governing interactions, not only between students and professors but students and students as well. If such a formality is disregarded then it is a slippery slope down towards treating the institution as a second home, not as an institution. So what is wrong with that? I'm not too sure myself, just that I know if I start wearing slippers and short pants to school I wouldn't feel like I'm going to school for lessons anymore.
2 Comments:
I think one reason why they might not want to enforce the dress code is that they do not want to be seen as 'dictatorial'. Nowadays the hype is to be cool, happening, etc. Not to be academic. This is probably due to competition from SMU.
Anyway, given that now there are so many more universities for people to choose from, probably the uni does not want to lose students because of disagreements over the dress code.
Hmm...while I disagree with the fancy dress styles of many people everywhere, I suppose its something I'm okay with, since I won't want the university to impose a 'slack' dress code on me either to promote the 'happening' image.
I won't dress down as I think of the uni as academic grounds, almost like 'sacred grounds', and should be accorded a certain level of propriety.
Unfortunately most others do not feel that way about the uni, which is something one can't control. I would speculate students want to dress fancily for 1) comfort, 2) socialising tool. I'm personally more annoyed by the second one, especially when I get gassed by girls who just dyed their hair or sprayed poison gas over themselves. Totally uncalled for.
Aquila
Well, I do think that any dress code will terribly inconvenience
1. International students (considering their culture and stuff)
2. Hostel students
There are really strong practical reasons to not set any standards for how one dress.
Post a Comment
<< Home