Liberty University has steadily grown for several years and to start the fall 2016 semester welcomed in yet another record breaking freshmen class. A common complement to growth is change and Liberty has made more notable amendments and adjustments to student life in the past few years. Liberty has not altered the Christian principles it was founded on but has made a few major changes to the dress code for residential students.
In the fall semester 2013 Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. approved male students to wear T-shirts to class. In the beginning of fall semester 2015, Liberty announced a change of the dress code in The Liberty Way from skirts and dresses being at the knee to mandating that women wear dresses or skirts no shorter than two inches above the knee.
This is a dramatic change compared to when girl’s dresses and skirts needed to be at their ankles and guys come only go to class in shirt, tie and slacks.
And changes have continued to be made to the dress code.
“Recently they’ve allowed girls to wear leggings,” second year RA Kiersten Dahlstrom said. “So this is the first year they can do that but there are restrictions to it. They have to wear a longer shirt.”
These changes have made the typical student attire “much DIFFERENT, in all caps” says Dean of Students Robert Mullen who graduated from Liberty in 1986 back when guys still had to wear ties to class and the ladies dress code was a lot more specific.
“Everything this year basically became allowed except men still having to wear pants to class,” Liberty senior Gregory Casteo said.
These recent dress code changes are the most made in a decade since Jerry Falwell, Sr. approved jeans and flip flops.
“When the dress code went into revision two summers ago, the goal was that the written portion to be reflective of the practice of administration of the dress code,” Mullen said. “Leadership was trying to work with students to make appropriate choices with some guardrails. If this is a four lane highway, we’re not telling you which lane you drive but just to stay within the guardrails.”
While these alterations do allow more flexibility for student’s clothes, it also causes campus RAs to enforce rules differently.
“They told us in training it is about going into a conversation with the person and asking them if that’s the best way for them to dress,” Dahlstrom said. “Before they were pretty cut and dry, it had to hit the knee. The hard part is the ambiguity of what is too short.”
While female RAs have had trouble managing these changes, the guys have not had much of any.
“For me no, the guys dress code hasn’t really changed a lot,” first year RA Luke Nelson said. “But as far as girls go, it’s not really the guys place to confront them about it because that can be an issue. We try to let the girl RA’s handle the girl dress code issues.”
Casteo says much has not changed other than the t-shirt policybut went on to say that it is easier for guys to follow the rules than it is for girls because it is not much guys can do to break dress code.
“I think that’s why I’ve seen a lot more girls crossing the line,” Casteo said. “It’s been some stuff too short, dresses being too short and too tight. If I was on female leadership, I’d probably have to say a lot of things to people.”
Junior Gioanni Galan shares Casteo’s feelings toward female dress code.
“I don’t like it,” Galan said. “A lot of girls on campus are getting a lot less moderate and that’s a disappointment. But I don’t think that’s the dress codes fault, I think just because we’re allowed to wear different kinds of clothes that means we should.”
Dahlstrom says that some of the problems with female dress codes come from commuters that do not have an RA to inform them on the new rules.
“I also feel like it’s been hard because administration hasn’t been super clear on what the new rules are,” Dahlstrom said. “It is the RA’s job to enforce these rules and tell the rules to the girls but it has changed quite a bit so nobody really knows what it is and what it’s not.”
Not having a firm understanding makes it hard to enforce rules and the laxation of those rules creates uncomfortable situation for people.
“I can say for sure, as a guy that wants to follow the Lord, and a guy in a relationship as well, with things being more free for us on dress code, it is much easier for a girl to wear something too revealing,” Casteo said. “There have been instances this semester where I’ve had to turn away or cover my eyes.”
Nelson shared similar thoughts on how guys are effected.
“I feel like guys are very visual,” Nelson said. “Like with yoga pants, if a girl is not covering herself appropriately, it can be a stumbling block.”
Listen here to catch Will Collier from radio station ICUQ-FM live for his story on the Liberty dress code:
