Waking up at 6 AM, of course the first thing I do is scramble to my closet to figure out what to wear to school. The blue skirt or the pink skirt? Or maybe that cute red dress… Oh wait. It’s Friday. Never mind. Friday = uniforms.

The controversy over uniforms affects all Upper Division students. Many people support the implementation of uniforms, saying that they make life easier and create a sense of community, but these few advantages are outweighed by a plethora of cons. Perhaps most importantly, uniforms stifle students’ creativity. Many see clothing as a way to express their style and creativity in a different way. A uniform would limit students’ ability to do that by conforming all of us to a few meager choices, essentially forcing us to wear different variations of the same outfit.  Uniforms deprive us of our own choice of clothing. Though this a choice that seems small or insignificant to some, think about it this way: if we can’t even be trusted to choose our own clothes, what does that say about how responsible we are? By allowing us to choose our own clothes (within a reasonable dress code of course) the administration puts a great deal of trust into the student body. They trust us to choose a wardrobe that represents ourselves, and Berkeley, in a respectable manner. Implementing daily uniforms would be a blatant revocation of that trust.

One popular argument in favor of uniforms is that they are a significantly cheaper option because students don’t have to buy new or expensive clothes to keep up with current “styles.” However, implementing uniforms would actually force students to buy two sets of clothing: they would have to buy uniforms for school in addition to everyday clothes for weekends, vacations, etc. Obviously having to buy an extra set of clothes would be much more expensive than just buying one set of clothes that could be worn both in and out of school.

In conclusion I have a summary and a request.  My summary: uniforms are expensive and suppress the creativity of students. Additionally, they deprive us of our clothing choice and display the administration’s lack of trust in us. My request: please try to stick to dress code. Or we could end up with Friday uniforms every day of the week…