On Friday Jan. 21, Martin Luther King, III, son of the legendary civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., was the keynote speaker for the MLK Convocation at the Al Lawson center.
King spoke about a number of things ranging from our environmental and governmental issues to some of our issues here at the university. He also spoke about the plans that his father had for change and our changes in terms of race. He said that we have not made great progress in the 40 years since his father’s death.
Along with speaking about healthcare, peaceful integration, the poor conditions of today’s society and the need for students to keep going forward, he talked about the state of our university. King spoke about our failure to address the issue of young men who wear their pants low and expose their underpants.
It’s a shame it takes someone so prestigious to point out the obvious things that need to be fixed. It raises the question of why aren’t there things being done about the dress code of students.
We are adults and we’re entitled to our own style, but in order to prepare ourselves as professionals for the future, maybe there should be a certain decorum that we need to abide by in our classrooms. Some of the things that people wear in class are completely ridiculous. I have witnessed people come to class in pajamas and women with their hair still in the bonnet they slept in the night before.
It’s even more of a shame that not one person from the school’s administration has stepped up to the plate and said anything about how students dress and represent ourselves in the classroom. Sure, some schools such as SBI have a strict dress code for certain classes, but what about the university as a whole?
We are one of the top HBCU’s in the nation, and we should set a standard for our campus and future students. A dress code would be a great way to start. Some of my professors won’t even let their students in class or will mark them absent if they are not adhering to the class dress code; this should be applied in every classroom.
King had a point in bringing up the latest fashion trends of some of our students. Now, I’m just waiting on President Ammons to address the issue.