Prof sets his own dress code

REXBURG, Idaho – A Brigham Young University-Idaho professor has banned students from wearing jeans and T-shirts in his medieval history classes and requires students in higher-level classes to wear business formal suits, ties or dresses.

“A university is preparation for the real world,” history professor Ryan Crisp said. “To teach students to think and act at a professional level.”

In his 200- and 300-level courses, Crisp requires his students wear business casual: khaki pants, sweaters, skirts and collared shirts.

Students in his 400-level class must wear formal business attire.

A professor at Boise State University says the policy only burdens students already on tight budgets.

“It’s difficult enough for students to afford their college education without requiring them to wear special clothing to class,” said Lynn Lubamersky of BSU’s history department. “You can learn history while wearing flip-flops, jeans, T-shirts.”

BYU-Idaho, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, already has a dress code that bans shorts, facial hair, body piercings, flip-flops, and sexually suggestive clothing. Students who don’t adhere to the code can be suspended.

Crisp’s requirements go beyond the school’s dress code.

“Anyone with a university education should expect to dress appropriately,” he said.

One of his students, freshman Robert Harvey, chafed at first under Crisp’s dress code.

“I thought, ‘This is college, they shouldn’t tell us what to wear,’ ” he said.

But he changed his mind after wearing business casual attire to Crisp’s History 306 class, and hearing Crisp’s explanation of how poor students during medieval times shared cloaks to be able to attend class.

“I like it because it takes more effort,” Harvey said.