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The absence of an official student dress code at West Virginia University is apparent to the University and Morgantown communities, according to Assistant Dean of Students LiDell Evans.
WVU administrators feel the popular "West F-ing Virginia" T-shirt is a bad representation of the state and the University.
"How many students do you see with a ‘West F-ing Virginia’ shirt on," he said. "There is no strict dress code."
Senior Associate Dean for Student Life Tom Sloane said students should encourage others not to wear the shirts.
"It’s and embarrassment to all of us," he said. "It gives (WVU) a bad name."
Administrators are not the only ones taking notice of the popular shirts.
Student Government Association Vice President Whitney Rae Peters said the organization does not want the shirts to become a part of the University’s history.
"Really, (SGA) has just talked about alternative ways to get students not to wear them," she said. "We don’t want those shirts to become a tradition."
Although some find the T-shirt offensive, Sloane said the implementation of an official dress code would be a suppression of students’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech.
"When dress and speech collide it is a difficult thing to regulate," he said. "I don’t know if we want to (regulate dress)."
Specifications on appropriate attire for University students have not appeared in the Student Code of Conduct for decades, according to Assistant Dean of Students Kimberly Mosby.
"Maybe there was a dress code back in the ’60s," she said.
"I think then the girls had to wear dresses."
While the lack of dress policy is accepted, Mosby said wearing certain clothing items or wearing none at all is not recommended.
"I don’t think (attending class naked) is a good idea," she said.
Attending class naked is a breech of West Virginia’s indecent exposure law as well as a WVU policy regarding disruption in the Student Code. If a student were to break either rule, Evans said his or her academic fate is hard to determine.
"The student can be expelled," he said. "But I don’t know if they would be."
Violations of the Student Code of Conduct can be filed by any member of the University against any student but must be submitted within the 90-day statute of limitations.
While causing a class disturbance is a violation of University policy, what is considered distracting or profane is up to interpretation, according to Evans.
"It depends on the teacher and the environment that the student is in," he said.
Streaking has caused problems at the University in the past, but Chief of University Police Bob Roberts said the case is very different today.
"Back in the 1970s there was a nation-wide streaking trend that resulted in some arrests, but there is nothing like that now," he said.
"Our problem is trademark stuff."
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