Okla-homey
1/14/2006, 09:01 AM
...break out the flip-flops, ORU is turning into Sin City University:eek:
ORU president gives thumbs up to dressing down
By APRIL MARCISZEWSKI
World Staff Writer
1/14/2006
Richard Roberts says students can now wear jeans and flip-flops. :eek:
When Oral Roberts University students rolled out of bed Friday morning, some put on jeans. This is at the school that long required women to wear skirts or dresses and men to wear ties and slacks. This is at the school where a dress code will never go out of style.
But President Richard Roberts proved this week that even a Christian school with strict ideas of modesty can change with the times.
In chapel Wednesday, he surprised students when he said they could immediately begin wearing jeans, sweatshirts, tennis shoes and flip-flops. Men could wear their shirts untucked. Women could wear strapless formal gowns. Everyone could wear sweatpants, T-shirts and hats to the cafeteria by the dorms.
In a roar of cheers, students gave the president a standing ovation. Heather Thomas, Student Association president, said she saw men untucking their shirts as Roberts spoke. :eek: :eek:
On Friday, freshman Jessica McCrae sat on a bench waiting for class to start. She wore dark jeans, a pink T-shirt and an olive-green hoodie. She definitely broke the old dress code earlier this week.
"I think everybody did." She didn't go so far as to wear jeans to class, but she did slip on a T-shirt instead of a blouse. Ironing really got old. McCrae gushed over the possibility of wearing jeans every day. "Shout out to P-Rob," she said.
The changes started when ORU did a study on how outsiders viewed the university, Roberts said. The study recommended changing the dress code, which had already been tweaked over the years.
As of about three years ago, men no longer had to wear ties, and women got the nod to wear pants. :eek:
In October, Roberts pulled together a committee of students, faculty and staff to make recommendations. He surveyed parents and alumni. He prayed and consulted his wife for the changes that were "probably overdue." [ya think?]
Jeff Ogle, vice president for student services, started talking to students, and he noticed they thought the dress code consisted of arbitrary rules. They didn't see the underlying principles of dressing modestly, professionally and appropriately for whatever situation they were in.
Ogle transferred to ORU in 1983, and he remembers learning to get up when his alarm clock rang, regardless of how late he stayed up the night before. He couldn't wear his pajamas to class or pull a ball cap over his hair. He had to make himself look presentable -- just like he did several years later when he entered the work force.
He thinks students still need to learn that lesson, and he's not sure they'd learn it without a dress code. But ORU's rules had fallen out of sync with fashion designers' creations. Plus, Thomas said, students don't use clothing as a form of rebellion anymore like hippies did when ORU opened.
"We were looking kind of old-fashioned," she said. This week, just as many students stuck to the old dressy attire as those who flashed their fashion sense.
Freshman Tylre Butler wore a white-and-black-striped button-down shirt, black tie, black slacks and dress shoes. "I like to dress up on chapel days," he said. "I like to look nice, I guess."
Thomas, a senior, didn't like the idea of changing the dress code at first. She saw it as an elemental aspect of ORU. But then she saw everyone caught up in, "Is this pant considered a jean? What if this shirt becomes untucked?"
"What we need to be known for is not rules and regulations -- it's relationships," she said.
Roberts sees the changes as major assets to recruiting new students. He wants to influence the student who wore jeans every day of high school, but he can't if that student never considers ORU.
The new rules are minimums, and the university still expects students to dress up for class presentations. Faculty and staff got new dress guidelines, too, but on Friday many of the men stuck to wearing ties.
Amy Runyon, a senior, thinks the changes lower ORU's standards. Clothing "affects your behavior a lot," she said. It also affects the way students are treated -- as professionals or miscreants. :rolleyes:
"I tend to look younger than I am," she said. "If I dress younger, I'll get treated like I'm still in high school."
But on Friday, Runyon wore jeans with her button-down shirt and burnt-orange sweater vest. Why? Because the opportunity presented itself.
April Marciszewski 581-8475
[email protected]
ORU president gives thumbs up to dressing down
By APRIL MARCISZEWSKI
World Staff Writer
1/14/2006
Richard Roberts says students can now wear jeans and flip-flops. :eek:
When Oral Roberts University students rolled out of bed Friday morning, some put on jeans. This is at the school that long required women to wear skirts or dresses and men to wear ties and slacks. This is at the school where a dress code will never go out of style.
But President Richard Roberts proved this week that even a Christian school with strict ideas of modesty can change with the times.
In chapel Wednesday, he surprised students when he said they could immediately begin wearing jeans, sweatshirts, tennis shoes and flip-flops. Men could wear their shirts untucked. Women could wear strapless formal gowns. Everyone could wear sweatpants, T-shirts and hats to the cafeteria by the dorms.
In a roar of cheers, students gave the president a standing ovation. Heather Thomas, Student Association president, said she saw men untucking their shirts as Roberts spoke. :eek: :eek:
On Friday, freshman Jessica McCrae sat on a bench waiting for class to start. She wore dark jeans, a pink T-shirt and an olive-green hoodie. She definitely broke the old dress code earlier this week.
"I think everybody did." She didn't go so far as to wear jeans to class, but she did slip on a T-shirt instead of a blouse. Ironing really got old. McCrae gushed over the possibility of wearing jeans every day. "Shout out to P-Rob," she said.
The changes started when ORU did a study on how outsiders viewed the university, Roberts said. The study recommended changing the dress code, which had already been tweaked over the years.
As of about three years ago, men no longer had to wear ties, and women got the nod to wear pants. :eek:
In October, Roberts pulled together a committee of students, faculty and staff to make recommendations. He surveyed parents and alumni. He prayed and consulted his wife for the changes that were "probably overdue." [ya think?]
Jeff Ogle, vice president for student services, started talking to students, and he noticed they thought the dress code consisted of arbitrary rules. They didn't see the underlying principles of dressing modestly, professionally and appropriately for whatever situation they were in.
Ogle transferred to ORU in 1983, and he remembers learning to get up when his alarm clock rang, regardless of how late he stayed up the night before. He couldn't wear his pajamas to class or pull a ball cap over his hair. He had to make himself look presentable -- just like he did several years later when he entered the work force.
He thinks students still need to learn that lesson, and he's not sure they'd learn it without a dress code. But ORU's rules had fallen out of sync with fashion designers' creations. Plus, Thomas said, students don't use clothing as a form of rebellion anymore like hippies did when ORU opened.
"We were looking kind of old-fashioned," she said. This week, just as many students stuck to the old dressy attire as those who flashed their fashion sense.
Freshman Tylre Butler wore a white-and-black-striped button-down shirt, black tie, black slacks and dress shoes. "I like to dress up on chapel days," he said. "I like to look nice, I guess."
Thomas, a senior, didn't like the idea of changing the dress code at first. She saw it as an elemental aspect of ORU. But then she saw everyone caught up in, "Is this pant considered a jean? What if this shirt becomes untucked?"
"What we need to be known for is not rules and regulations -- it's relationships," she said.
Roberts sees the changes as major assets to recruiting new students. He wants to influence the student who wore jeans every day of high school, but he can't if that student never considers ORU.
The new rules are minimums, and the university still expects students to dress up for class presentations. Faculty and staff got new dress guidelines, too, but on Friday many of the men stuck to wearing ties.
Amy Runyon, a senior, thinks the changes lower ORU's standards. Clothing "affects your behavior a lot," she said. It also affects the way students are treated -- as professionals or miscreants. :rolleyes:
"I tend to look younger than I am," she said. "If I dress younger, I'll get treated like I'm still in high school."
But on Friday, Runyon wore jeans with her button-down shirt and burnt-orange sweater vest. Why? Because the opportunity presented itself.
April Marciszewski 581-8475
[email protected]