Tuskegee University President Mark A. Brown recently announced a new dress code policy for students.
Beginning in the upcoming semester, the new dress code requires students to wear “business suits and appropriate shoes for business meetings and other professional occasions.” Additionally, students are not allowed to wear “revealing clothing” as well as “bedroom shoes, bonnets, and do-rags” in classrooms, dinning spaces, and official university settings.
“The goal here is not meant to restrict students from enjoying the Tuskegee Experience, but to prepare them with a solid foundation for the workforce they will enter once they leave Tuskegee,” President Brown wrote in a message to parents of incoming first-year students.
In addition to new dress code requirements, the Alabama HBCU has also established strict cell phone and attendance policies. Students are no longer allowed to use their phones in class unless directed by a professor, and devices must be turned off during instruction. Furthermore, President Brown says the university plans to monitor classroom attendance more closely.
Thanks, Mr. President. A mind is a terrible thing to waste!
This is the right call. A more elegant and civilized attire leads to a better feel overall at a school. All schools should do this. It’s the reason there are dress codes at places where important work is done. No wearing underwear as outer wear. Too bad we even have to say this today.
I absolutely agree with the President!
I earned all three of my degrees from two HBCUs. I lived on campus through my masters degree. We did not always dress to the nines but never any of the stuff the Tuskegee president is banning. If he has to implement these standards it stands to reason that he has cause to do so.
As a career educator, I agree with his move. We are not just teaching students subject matter. We are teaching them to go out into a hostile world and be successful, particularly our Black and Brown students of which I am both.
I applaud Tuskegee University President’s decision to defend their dress code noting the way students dress is related to their success and Tuskegee’s mission is to promote student success. The relationship between one’s dress and actual success is indeed proven and far more powerful than most people believe.
As a professor, researcher, and mentor, I use my expertise on the dress-success relationship to help women dress to optimize their success. My upcoming book “Girl, Your Clothes Are Talking: How to Dress Strategically to Optimize Your Success” explains how and why dress impacts success.
Research consistently confirms the powerful and pervasive influence of dress on success. Not only can dress impact performance evaluations but it can also affect actual performance. I fully expect that Dr. Brown’s mission to use dress codes to enhance student success and career readiness will result in greater success among Tuskegee’s future graduates and I hope that other universities will follow suite.
Dr. Sandra Forsythe
Wrangler Professor and Presidential Fellow, Emerita, Auburn University
Author, “Girl, Your Clothes Are Talking: How to Dress Strategically to Optimize Your Success”