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A historically black university in the Southern US is pushing students to wear business suits and clamping down on headwear as part of its new dress code.
Starting next month, students at Tuskegee University in Alabama will no longer be able to wear bonnets, du-rags or bedroom shoes in classrooms and cafeterias.
Students will also be required to wear a 'business suit and proper shoes' whenever they are on campus for a business meeting.
According to an email sent by university president Dr. Mark A. Brown, the updated code is to prepare students 'with a solid foundation for the workforce' after graduation.
'Employers are less forgiving and too often presentation may overrule stellar preparation,' Brown wrote.
If students do not comply with the dress code, they will be asked to adhere to the policy before being able to participate in class.
After multiple violations, students may have to leave the classroom.
The policies are being implemented as Tuskegee expects a 32-year new student enrollment high.
A political science student at the university, Aliya Purnell, said she was concerned that the announcement felt 'like a slippery slope of us devolving into conservatism.'
'What's stopping them from banning piercings?' Purnell told What I'm Reading.
She accused the university of misplacing its focus, noting how the southern school had struggled with a campus housing shortage for its students.
'Right now, we are in a housing crisis,' Purnell told the outlet. 'We are in a financial crisis. We just got done dealing with students having bats in their dorms.'
Purnell claimed she had rarely seen 'students walking around campus with durags and bonnets,' insisting that 'everybody is dressed professionally and adequately.'
'The only time you will ever see that is maybe on a Sunday, where one to two people go to the cafeteria for a quick brunch and go right back to their dorms,' she said.
Durags and bonnets are generally worn by black people to maintain and style their hair.
Aerospace engineering junior Aiden Bass said that 'most of the people' he knew from the university were spending their summer at internships.
'We're all saying the way that we dress wasn't stopping us from gaining these internships,' Bass told the outlet.
