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NORMAL, Ill. (AP) -- At this business school, the dress code is "business casual."

The Illinois State University College of Business says sweat pants and flip-flops are out. Khakis and loafers are in. The dress code is being instituted starting this semester for the hundreds of students there.

The head of the school's marketing department says it's an effort to "enhance the overall professionalism" there.

The code applies to students while they're attending marketing and business teacher education courses.

Although a lot of schools ask students to dress up for special events, it's difficult to find a public university or large school with this type of dress code.



Gee...welcome to business school. Are college kids really going to handle this well? I mean, I wore yoga pants or pj pants to class on days when I didn't have to work right after class...it's the joy of college. Get out of bed, throw on something, go to class early, and go back to bed afterward. I just can't see this actually working for a bunch of 18-21ers at a non-elite school like this. Hell, they don't even have the best business school in the MVC. Missouri State's got that wrapped up and they're not asking for kids to wear business clothes to school. Can college kids even afford enough business clothes to wear them every day to class?

 

Absolutely great idea.

Time for the kiddies to grow up and learn that they're going to have to look presentable in the business world.

 

Not unreasonable. If it was business formal and everyone had to break out the Brooks Brothers and whatever girls wear to look professional, then that'd be one thing. But khakis, loafers and polos shouldn't break the bank for most people, and it gives them a head start on building their wardrobe for when they hit IRL.

Possible side effect: dress code might attract Dave Matthews.

 

Fuck, at my college no one had to tell the business school fucks to dress up. They were already into junior-corporate-raider costumes.

 

I guess I just can't see kids doing this...maybe they wanted it, but I can't see 18-year-olds shelling out too much money to buy business casual clothing when they're trying to pay for school.

 

Exactly. If you're going for a business degree and you have to be told to dress in some form of business attire, that's sad.

 

Khakis cost $20 or $30, often less at Kohl's. Loafers can be bought cheap at Payless. It's not a bank-breaker.

 

If I had to guess, most college students probably have enough of that type of clothing anyway. I'd hope and imagine they'd make provisions for students from poor backgrounds where they didn't have the money to dress up, but looking the part is something they need to learn and adjust to.

 

The kid who ended up being the biz manager of our college paper tied the sharpest Windsor knot of anyone I've ever seen. He was 21. He got off on it, too.

I tried not to go to class in sweats, but it happened. So did not going, for that matter.

 

If you're wearing sweats to anything other than bed or to exercise, you are a looser.

 

Given my small sample (about 1,000 students at a upper-middle-class suburban Midwestern high school), I've been able to surmise that most male high school students I come into contact with own about two shirts that actually have a collar -- at least one of which is frayed -- and own about one pair of pants that aren't ripped jeans.

Business casual isn't hard ... khakis, a polo shirt and one pair of non-athletic shoes that most kids already have. And it creates an expectation that *this* is at least how you dress when you go to work. We wore sweats to class in college (I wore sweats & a hat almost every day, at least to my few morning classes), but we also had enough sense to know what the expectations were to wear to work. We've recently heard horror stories about kids showing up for job interviews in ripped jeans, showing up for the first day of work with IPod buds in their ears, et al.

 

As an admittedly shoddy dresser, who frequently rails against too-strict dress codes in newsrooms, especially for deskers who are there until midnight ... I have no problem with this policy.

If there's one way in which the education system in this country is made of absolute fail, it's in providing students with realistic expectations for life in the real world. The need to dress (and speak and behave) appropriately for your environment is a realistic expectation.