Saturday, October 10, 2009

I hope this doesn't hop across the pond

Dress codes for college professors? Say it ain't so!

Here is the situation in Birmingham England:

It is normally students who are sent home for inappropriate attire, but one English college is threatening to send lecturers home for violating a dress code, which includes a ban on jeans.

Their union has accused Birmingham Metropolitan College of "acting like the fashion police."

The newly re-issued dress code requires lecturers to wear a "business suit; smart jacket and co-ordinating trousers or skirt; smart shirt/top/blouse or smart dress."

Scruffy trousers, jeans, ostentatious jewelry and outrageous hair styles and colors are strictly banned.

Earrings must not be excessive and are the only form of jewelry allowed in visible piercings. The policy also states that tattoos must be covered.

Nick Varney of the local University and College Union (UCU) branch said the policy "harks back to Victorian times." He told Reuters he has never seen staff so angry.
"They are absolutely fuming. It's about their professionalism and the notion that they haven't got a clue about what to wear when they are teaching," Varney said.

The guidelines are a far cry from the stereotypical image of a college lecturer as a slightly scruffy, chalk-dusted individual wearing corduroy jackets with torn leather elbow pads.

In the policy, the college says: "The College is a professional and business-like organization and staff have a responsibility to uphold and promote these values in their dress and appearance."

There are several funny things here. 

(1) Where in this world are college students sent home for inappropriate attire? At my University, standard female dress is Ugg boots and micro-short-shorts. 

(2) What does "smart" mean when describing clothing? That is has embedded microchips?

(3) I will stipulate to being slightly scruffy and frequently chalk dusted, but  I don't own any corduroy jackets nor do any of my jackets have elbow pads.  

(4) Any organization that has to SAY it is professional and business like probably actually ISN'T professional and business like.

(5) Who in the world would ever consider a college/university to be professional and businesslike. We are all here explicitly to AVOID being at least one of those two things.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

the phil department must have pissed someone off.

Norman said...

I actually do have a corduroy jacket with leather elbow pads. Is that not what I'm supposed to wear to job market interviews?

Kunal said...

(1) Where in this world are college students sent home for inappropriate attire? At my University, standard female dress is Ugg boots and micro-short-shorts.

In my unhappy country, I know a dude who got sent home from college for wearing trousers without cleats. This is true, I kid you not.

Another, more famous Jesuit-run college had a ban on red shirts or tops. My own alma mater had a long-standing policy against shorts, though it had begun to weaken by the time I graduated.

Anonymous said...

(4) Any organization that has to SAY it is professional and business like probably actually ISN'T professional and business like.

Speaking as someone that used to work there, you're dead right with that assessment.

Reasonable Robinson said...

The slow creep of managerialism into higher education. Having been a man in a suit I know that this homogenisation is bad for business

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