Although I had hopes for Ave Maria University when I heard it would locate in Naples, Florida, (at last, someone who could talk about something other than golf!) I began having suspicions that Tom Monaghan had control issues. He wanted a town where he could control everything, and I mean everything. The staff would dress properly.
An e-mail sent from the administration to the faculty about the AMU Dress Code (already a warning – a “dress code” for professors?)
In hopes of bringing clarity and unity among all employees with respect to the dress code policy, I have been asked by the University Council to communicate the following information: Attached is the revised AMU Dress Code Policy. As you will note, it is a clarification of the existing policy to provide clearer direction of what is and is not acceptable professional business attire.Male employees are required to wear business attire that effectively promotes the professional image of Ave Maria University; meaning, jackets and ties are required with a preference of suits for faculty: suits are required for staff. Of course, this is in conjunction with the stipulation noted in the policy regarding employees working in certain areas of the organization that warrants dressing differently.In addition, beginning August 30, 2010 the AMU Dress Code Policy will be revised to state that female employees will no longer be permitted to wear slacks or pant suits during work hours. They will however be permitted to wear slacks when traveling.
Although this is a major change for some of you and certainly comes with a cost for adding skirts, suits, and dresses to your existing wardrobe, it is the intent of Senior Management to work with local retailers in the hopes of providing suitable business clothes such as skirts or skirt-suits at discounted prices. This information will be shared as it becomes available. Please keep in mind that we are implementing this change to improve our overall appearance as an institution of professionals. Knowing that this change will require time and planning, Management believed it important to provide several months advanced notice.
It is the expectation that all employees will adhere to the policy as written and management will enforce the policy accordingly.
I like the word “enforce.” My wife was approached about teaching at AMU (for free of course) but she said no one from Michigan was going to tell her how to dress.
I sometimes wonder whether the traditionalists who support Ave Maria really want the re-imposition of “Christendom” — which probably did more to destroy the faith in Europe over the centuries than all the heretics and persecutors combined.
Monaghan et al should re-read St. Paul’s admonitions about freedom. True faith in Christ is not a matter of what we eat or wear (beyond sensible moderation). Ave Maria’s behavior turns people into children who are not responsible for their actions. It makes Ave Maria the ultimate totalitarian parent. Millions of men and women throughout the centuries have died fighting against such parental totalitarianism.
Infantilization.
Good for you, Mrs. Podles!
I think this is a case of adding two and two and getting five. Whether you agree with this new dress code at the University or not, how does this matter extend to Ave Maria town, and Mr. Monaghan’s presumed goal of controlling “everything – and I mean everything – in the town”?
I invite any one to come to Ave Maria and look at the women’s dress shop, “The Secret Ingredient” plunked right in the town center not a stone’s throw from the Oratory. There are tank tops; shorts; short dresses; and dresses with low necklines.
In fact, there are even short dresses with low necklines.
As for Mr. Hippolito’s highly stirring ending to his post, it’s a bit overdramatic. Business owners, managers, principals, and chancellors have been issuing dress codes for a long time now.
Whether or not this code strikes you as too stringent, I can’t remember when millions have died fighting such matters as whether they’ll wear a tie or a jacket. When it comes to a dress code that people really don’t like, quitting, rather than dying by the millions, generally tends to be the solution.
Monty, let me refer you to another statement I made:
Monaghan et al should re-read St. Paul’s admonitions about freedom. True faith in Christ is not a matter of what we eat or wear (beyond sensible moderation).
There’s a tension between freedom and modesty, to be sure. And, yes, private organizations have the right to determine how their employees should dress. But there’s a difference between insisting upon standards and telling ostensibly mature people how to dress (the key word here is “mature;” I’m not talking about high schoolers wearing gang-banger gear).
As far as “parental totalitarianism” is concerned, all totalitarian regimes see themselves as “parental,” in a sense. Does that mean that parents are all little Stalins and Hitlers? Certainly not!! But the issue is dealing with mature adults not with children who need moral formation. Unfortunately, all totalitarian regimes see adults as children who need the regime’s “special” kind of “moral formation.” Otherwise, they get killed for the society’s good, doncha know?
I think the obsession over women wearing pants and pantsuits is a little OTT these days, but I note that the Army and Navy Club requires jackets and ties in the dining room. If it is socially acceptable for a club or a restaurant to this, I fail to see why AMU shouldn’t.
If we are going to get in a huff about skirts then let us also be outraged at the the requirement of ties on men. Heck, why wear clothes at all? Who’s to tell their employees what clothes (if any) are and are not permissible at work.
Obviously there must be SOME rule. It’s simply a matter of where the line is drawn and it has as much to do with men as it does with women. Attempting to use this as a way of discrediting the school shows desperate bias. This is what you come up with to complain about? Let’s be mature, shall we?
Brava to Mrs. Podles.
Appearances aren’t very important to our Lord Jesus Christ, but apparently they are to the administration of AMU.
Greg Erlandson said it best: “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first introduce to Tom Monaghan.”
While I agree that employers ought to have the right to impose a dress code if they wish, it is also important for employers to consider whether or not such a dress code is prudent. As a professor at a government school, I would not accept a pay cut and then be forced to wear a coat and tie. Heck, I even wear jeans occasionally. Tom is free to require whatever garb he desires, however his desires may come at a cost that is too high to make prudent sense.
Hey, everybody knows Jesus totally wore a tie to work every single day. I don’t think a sincere approach to Christianity is what this university/cult is all about.
Actually, when Tom Monaghan owned Domino’s Pizza he had the same type of professional dress code for nearly all employees. This doesn’t have anything to do with religion, it’s just Tom’s belief that professional dress is more appropriate than casual dress in a business or professional setting. This is a view shared by thousands of other businesses, municipalities and other institutions.