Student Council Votes on Dress Code Reform Options

Aimed toward a more gender neutral campus, Student Council (StuCo) voted on a new dress code Tuesday to address and correct critical issues found in the current guidelines. If approved by the faculty, the long-standing necktie requirement for boys will be abolished from the dress code.

For the past few months, members of StuCo’s Policy Committee have been working to draft the proposal for the new dress code. Last Wednesday, Jan. 28, StuCo passed the rationale behind the need for a new gender-neutral dress code.

“The current dress code at our school is problematic in two ways,” senior and StuCo President Benj Cohen said. “The first is that the standard for men and women are different. The current dress code perpetuates gender roles and gender stereotypes by forcing men to dress to a higher standard than women.”

Upper Kyra Citron added to Cohen’s viewpoint, stating that the higher standard of the boys’ dress code can make girls feel “looked down upon for what they’re wearing because it’s either too revealing or not professional enough, according to the teachers,” she said.

“The current dress code perpetuates gender roles and gender stereotypes by forcing men to dress to a higher standard than women.”

The second issue the new dress code will address is the current dress code’s effect on certain students. The current code puts faculty in the position to decide whether a student is a “boy” or a “girl” when enforcing the tie requirement. This has lead to many uncomfortable and upsetting situations that could be avoided with a gender-neutral dress code. “What one person might compliment you on, another person could potentially dress code you for,” Citron said.

“[The current dress code] doesn’t allow for a full range of gender identities to exist, even though they do and will continue to exist,” senior and StuCo member Emily Lemmerman said.

Senior Sabrina Ortega-Riek believes the new system will greatly benefit transgendered students. “This new dress code is a necessary step towards dismantling a system that genders clothing and directly jeopardizes the mental health of trans kids,” she said.

To fix these critical issues in the current dress code, two proposals (essentially lists of attire that are allowed and not allowed) were presented at the StuCo meeting held on Feb. 3. Both options state that ties, jackets and scarves are always acceptable. The two differ because option two requires that along with dress shirts, students can wear ties, sweaters, blazers or cardigans, whereas option one allows for students to wear only dress shirts. A handwritten preliminary vote followed the meeting in which the members of the council chose which of the two proposals they wanted the council to continue working on.

Although some members abstained from voting because they believed both proposals had problems, option one accumulated the most votes. Cohen is pleased with option one’s success. “I think it’s practical. I think it’s easy to understand, easy to implement and enforce, and I think it will give students a little bit more freedom in what they wear, which is always a good thing.”

It was a challenge to create an “enforceable dress code that also follows the rationale of having to be a gender-neutral one and keep the ‘professional’ focus, because as much as we want to solve these issues of equity, we also want to maintain a sense of purpose that can be easily enforced among all students by faculty without much [difficulty],” Lemmerman said.

An additional issue that arose in the creation of the new proposal was that it is impossible or extremely challenging to uphold a tie in the reforms, which many students and faculty believe to be an important part of Exeter’s identity. Problems like these will be addressed further in future StuCo meetings.

Although there are still changes to be made before the new dress code is submitted to faculty, the dress code change has been set firmly in motion with this approved first draft. There are high hopes in the community about this new dress code. Looking toward the future, senior Tori Huit hopes that “we maintain formality, continue approaching learning with seriousness and take greater strides to be more inclusive of ‘otherness.’” She is confident all three goals can be accomplished.

Lemmerman hopes the new dress code will “create a symbolic change that will move towards a more tolerant campus for trans and genderqueer students and increase gender equity in ways that may show up beyond the dress code, say in the division of leadership positions on campus.”