Whether it’s because you pulled an all-nighter studying for a test, or you just hit the snooze button a few too many times, we’ve all had those days where you wake up and decide that getting to class is far more important than looking in the mirror before you leave the house. This common decision explains the college grunge style that seems to be rapidly infecting our student body (no pun intended). I would describe this trend as consisting of, well, whatever is comfy and readily available on your bedroom floor.
Jenny Wunder, a history major, believes, “College is going to be one venue in life where the dress code is extremely lax, and I feel I need to take full advantage of that.” Hey, we’re in college, we have things to do, and people know that…but what if they don’t? As much as I hate to say it, our outer appearance speaks to who we are. And in college classes, we are professional students there to get an education. So why do so many of us dress so relaxed? I see a lot of styles on campus, but they all have one thing in common: they’re all very casual. I got to thinking, “What do our professors think of us?”
So, I asked. It turns out, they like us! Well, they at least understand us.
Political Science professor Ron Mitchell states, “What students wear doesn’t really affect my impression of students at all. I am far more interested in how well they think and how engaged they are in their own education than in what they wear.” That was a relief to hear since I was pretty sure that, when I had his class, he might have mistaken me for a pile of sweatpants and sweatshirts. Mitchell has been at the UO for 17 years, so he totally gets it. College is about broadening our minds, not our wardrobes.
Dressing more professionally requires extra effort, but there are many other factors that affect how we dress. When asked what she thought most influenced students’ style, English professor Allison Carruth replies via email, “Their tastes, the time of the class (we’re all more comfortable in jeans at 8 a.m., I think), the level of the class (is it a professionally oriented upper-division class, for example), income and family background.”
However, Luke Hollis, a GTF for the Creative Writing department, believes that “thinking about what you’re wearing shows some amount of value to the class that you’re taking and the university as a whole. Most of us wouldn’t go to an office job in our grubbies—and though the situations are different, the concept of being in a professional environment is the same.”
It sounds like professors mostly just want respect and your full attention in the classroom, nothing we haven’t heard before. So, if you want to dress like a laundry monster, you have to compensate with participation and hard work in class. But respect isn’t a one-way street. If students can get away with casual, rather than professional, attire, does this apply to professors as well?
Wunder stresses that “if you’re standing in front of me for a prolonged period of time, several days a week, I would hope that I wouldn’t see your gut the entire time.” So there are a few definite no-nos when it comes to clothing appropriateness.
I’ve seen them in suits, shorts, and sandals, and I find that a professor’s clothing choice never clearly reflects their teaching style. It may give you an idea of their personality, but just because he teaches class in flip-flops doesn’t mean the class will be a breeze.
Keegan Caughlin, a philosophy major at the U of O, says, “Professors should dress in such a way that they can be respected by the majority of active participating students. Whether this means a tie-dye one-piece or a full suit depends on the class and the students in it.”
So the next time you’re groggily trying to decide whether or not you can get away with wearing the same shirt two days in a row, keep in mind what your professors want out of you. Hollis says, “Confidence—when tempered with respect—is always the most impressive.”