Southern University Board Chairman Proposes Campus-Wide Dress Code
BATON ROUGE, La. — The chairman of Southern University’s governing board wants the system to adopt a formal dress code, pointing to policies already in place at other historically Black colleges and universities as a model.
Tony Clayton, chairman of the Southern University System Board of Supervisors and district attorney for the 18th Judicial District covering Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes, raised the idea at the board’s meeting Friday in Baton Rouge. He told board members he plans to bring the system’s chancellors together to discuss the proposal before the board’s next scheduled meeting on Sept. 18.
What Clayton Said
Clayton said the idea grew out of a walk around campus.
“I walked around campus the other day. I think we need it,” he told fellow board members.
The Southern University System includes five campuses: Southern University and A&M College and the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Southern University at New Orleans, Southern University Shreveport, and the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center.
The Tuskegee Comparison
Clayton pointed to Tuskegee University, a private HBCU in Alabama, as an example of the kind of policy he’s considering. Tuskegee rolled out a new dress code this year that bars students from wearing revealing clothing, along with bedroom shoes, bonnets and do-rags in classrooms and the campus cafeteria, a change the university’s president outlined in a letter released over the summer.
The rollout drew a mixed reaction from Tuskegee students returning for the fall semester. Serenity Mitchell, a junior biology major at Tuskegee, said publicizing the policy the way the university did cast the student body in an unfair light. She said Tuskegee students already represent themselves well and that releasing the dress code the way administrators did made students “look bad.” Tuskegee has not released enforcement details or penalties tied to the policy, and the university declined to comment further on it.
How Other HBCUs Handle Attire
Dress code policies vary widely across historically Black colleges and universities nationally. Hampton University maintains a formal campus dress code, as does Fisk University. Howard University and Morehouse College have attire expectations tied to specific programs or events rather than rules that apply to the entire student body.
What Happens Next
No formal proposal exists yet. Clayton’s comments Friday were the first public airing of the idea, and he said he wants chancellors from each of Southern’s five campuses to talk it through before the board meets again Sept. 18. Whether a written policy lands on the agenda that day, or the discussion stays informal, remains to be seen.
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