A Dress Code Is Necessary In the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese people used to wear clothes of the same style in dull color. Since the reform and opening up, people started to wear clothes in more and different styles and colors, and this change has been viewed as a symbol of the progress made in China. But despite this trend, several universities have made quite strict requirements about what to wear on campus. Many students naturally disagree. After thorough reflection, however, we may find that a dress code is necessary both to maintain a good study environment and to safeguard the future development of students.
First of all, a strict dress code can avoid distractions so that students can focus better on their study. On the one hand, when only certain types of clothes can be worn on campus, students, especially those girl students, will not spend too much time thinking about competing via the latest fashion, and will focus better on their courses. On the other hand, a dress code can help prevent too much distraction from the opposite sex. College students are at the age when they are easily attracted by the opposite sex, so improper dresses may make students of the opposite sex unable to focus on study. For example, there used to be a report that a boy student sued a girl sitting in front of him in an important exam for distraction because she wore so little that he could not focus on his test paper.
Secondly, a strict dress code can show respect for teachers and classmates. Several anthropologists have pointed out that the way one dresses on a certain occasion demonstrates one's attitude to it. That is, if one dresses formally, one is taking the occasion seriously; if one dresses very casually, one is not attaching much importance to the occasion. Teaching activities, whether in small classrooms or in large lecture halls, are quite formal occasions and deserve much formality. We might have all seen some students coming to class in slippers or shorts. In this way, they are not showing respect for their teachers and their classmates. This mentality is certainly harmful to a positive learning environment.
Most importantly, a strict dress code can teach students the importance of proper dressing in the future. When students start working after graduation, they must understand that in their working places, there is a strict dress code, either explicit or implicit. Breaking this code may put them at a disadvantage. Similarly, in various social occasions out of their working places, there is a strict dress code, and failure to follow it will lead to undesirable results. Recently a group of college girls were widely criticized, because they wore flip-flaps, which belong to the beach, to the White House. If the college had practised a strict dress code, this would not have happened.
Therefore, university administrators have the duty to make and enforce dress codes on campus if they want to help students focus on study, cultivate a proper learning environment or teach students proper manners in the society. If they ignore this seemingly unimportant issue, students may neither study well nor behave well, and then they are not really turning out to be the talents that the society needs.