Validity of Dress Codes

Hampton University, a traditionally black university, recently hit the national news when it came down with an addition to requirements for its Bachelors / MBA candidates. It added a dress code that requires not wearing hair in a certain style typically considered black or African influenced. While it is important to mold your future professionals and get them accustomed to the uniform in which they will work, it makes me wonder whether this dress code is appropriate for one race. It also makes me wonder whether it should be imposed at other professional schools and upon students of all races.

The furor developed when Hampton announced that male students cannot wear certain hairdos — dreadlocks, cornrows, braids. If they do not conform, they’re out of the program.
In addition to the hairdo requirements, students must wear a traditional black or blue suit once a week for business meetings and business casual the rest of the week. Tight and short skirts are also not allowed for women. However, women students are allowed to wear braids.
There are other requirements, but those are the ones most publicized in the recent news stories.
Now there are a few things about this code that bother me. If we are saying that the hairdo is offensive in that it is nontraditional or goes against the conservative, traditional grain, then it seems it should apply equally to both genders.
Although there are some styles that are done and maintained with a high degree of care, the braid do is becoming more than trite. For some people, encountering a swath of synthetic hair passing as one’s own, and copycating person after person after person becomes wearying — even for the most liberal thinkers. So why not ban braids for both genders? Dreadlocks can be done in a very attractive manner. But the ones seen in mainstream American look ill-kempt and a bit grungy. So why not ban dreadlocks for both genders?
The other thing about this new code is that it applies to just the MBA students. It seems these standards should be imposed on not just the School of Business but on all of the other five academic program students as well. The inclusiveness of the code, for the sake of equal application, should be focused not just on the black students but on all students. There is no language saying the school does not accept any other races. However, as you scan the iimages on the school’s website, it becomes quite obvious that it is not a single-race institution but instead is multiracial and diverse. So my argument is that this new dress code should also apply to all of the races of the school. Those are essentially the biggest arguments I have with Hampton’s dress code.
What I definitely agree with is the goal that Administration has for imposing these requirements. School is a time to train up those who will go forward to do work representative of the good training with which they were imparted. That training is supposed to prepare the candidates for being the best member of their business culture as possible. So, the code is actually moving the students in a positive direction. Start from the center in a very conservative mode. Gain the knowledge and skills necessary to do the job with the utmost professionalism in exacting strokes. Learn the culture of the business setting in which you ultimately get hired. Then blend in, adding a bit of splash here or there.
What Hampton is doing is pushing its mission statement forward in every aspect of its teaching and training. Its stated purpose is “the promotion of learning, building of character, and preparation of promising students.” They have a 100% placement record. Their additional goal is to maintain that record.
Start off conservative, then add personality in little drops. Be excellent at what you do, in addition to being professional. What’s wrong with that? Nothing that I can see.
Read the buzz:

• University Bans Certain Hairstyles for Students, WTOP
• Rules for workplace, Jenice Armstrong, Philadelphia Daily
• Dredded Decision, CNN transcript