Public university adopts dress code

Years ago, someone suggested running a joke campaign for the state legislature and introducing ridiculous bills like one to require dress codes in public universities. We had a good chuckle at this, but now it's no laughing matter.

I heard this story recently during my trip to the Deep South, and I meant to report on it. The University of West Alabama - a state university funded by Alabama taxpayers - actually instituted a dress code this school year. You'd expect a dress code at some private institutions like, say, Bob Jones, but not at a public university in modern times.

This dress code bans saggy pants, tank tops, hats, shirts with "obscene" writing, and other attire. It's said to be the only schoolwide dress code at any public college or university in America.

Well, one of two. A few years ago I went to a community college that had a dress code ordering students to wear whatever they'd wear in their future career. (The education system really is corporate-centered these days.) As a writer who works at home, I guess that means I could have shown up naked. Most students just wore Puddle Of Mudd t-shirts, and nobody batted an eye at them.

But who knows where dress codes will stop now that UWA has issued a specific policy? Once the control freaks get a foot in the door, that just makes it easier to impose more tyranny, little by little. I call it tyranny creep. What's next? Uniforms?

(Source: http://www.abc3340.com/news/stories/1007/460669.html;
http://www.universities-weblog.com/50226711/university_of_west_alabama_bans_tank_tops_whales_tails.php)