A dress code is typically associated with Catholic schools, but Seton Hall and its students aren't faced with this problem today, although this wasn't always the case.
According to Dr. Chrysanthy Grieco, associate professor of English, an informal dress code at Seton Hall was actually a common thing for many years in the 1960s when she was teaching at SHU.
"The dress code has changed from the preppy academic wear of the '60s to almost anything goes today," Grieco said. "For men it was jackets, ties, pants but no jeans, and tied shoes no loafers; for women it was dresses or skirts and blouses, and no pants, dress or otherwise."
Grieco said that even the nuns and priests wore every color and style of clerical clothing for much of the decade, but everything changed in the 1970s.
"Remember it was the dawning of the ages with post-Woodstock, hippies and flower children," Grieco said. "It was not uncommon to see both men and women wearing American Indian outfits complete with beads around their necks and feathers in their hair. Some women students wore long flowing dresses and often carried bunches of flowers, which they distributed to others."
There were even some students who went a little too far with the freedom to wear what they wanted on campus, Grieco said.
"I even had a 'streaker' in one of my classes who jumped up in the al fresco wearing a tie and sneakers, and who bolted out of the room with several men chasing after him," Grieco said. "The last time I saw him, he was running across the campus; needless to say, he never came back to class."
Dr. Tracy Gottlieb, vice president of Student Services, said that today dress codes just don't exist at colleges but students should know better than to go as far as Grieco's streaker.
"I would hope that students use common sense when they get dressed in the morning," Gottlieb said. "I would hope I don't have to tell anyone to refrain from wearing clothes that offend, or insult or wound people with their words or images."
Eric Hostettler can be reached at eric.hostettler@student.shu.edu.
