One of the running jokes of modern day society is the judicial system's failure to always keep up with the times. In "Weird News" columns there are often stories about people receiving summons for laws that were written for a different time. In Vermont, for example, one long-dated law requires women to obtain written permission from their husbands before they may legally wear false teeth, according to a website specializing in finding outdated legislation. (www.dumblaws.com) According to the site, Barre, Vt., locals are legally required to bathe every Saturday. It is also illegal to deny the existence of God while in the state of Vermont or to whistle while underwater.

Many states keep laws such as these on the books, laws that no officer of the law would ever enforce, simply because no one wants to go to the trouble of removing them. Officers simply refuse to enforce them, either because society no longer views them as appropriate restrictions of individual freedom, or because no one would ever actually dream of violating them.

Institutions such as universities are not immune to this same condition, though to a lesser degree. Many rules that would never be enforced due to their social inappropriateness are nonetheless still in the university rules and regulations.

One such rule involves the style of dress worn by civilian students. As it is written, the regulation requires civilian students attending class to wear "appropriate business attire."

In the weeks since the beginning of the fall 2002 semester, there has been talk among those in authority of the possibility of once again enforcing the dress code amongst civilian students at Norwich University. We believe that the idea of enforcing uniformity of dress amongst civilians is inappropriate even at an institution as conservative as Norwich due to both the outdated attitude it reflects and the lack of necessity for changing the status quo. Forcing uniformity upon civilians is a 60-year-old social relic of World War II that was washed away in mainstream America by the social movement of the 1960s. It is as appropriate today as the attitude that a woman's place is in the kitchen. Modern American freedom includes the idea of freedom of dress and it would be in poor taste for a university to deny their students that freedom.

The fact is that the majority of the civilian students attend classes wearing attire that is appropriate for a modern academic setting. So long as their clothing is not offensive or inappropriate, there is no need for the university to take any action.

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