The CSB Experience: Uniformity

      What do I wear on a typical school day? A plain t-shirt, a pair of jeans or long shorts, a pair of sneakers and that's all to it. What does some schoolmate wear in a typical school day? A long pair of black pants, a pair of clean "croc" shoes, a white "polo" shirt with a CSB logo on the left upper pocket of he shirt. What does another schoolmate wear in a typical school day? A polo shirt beneath a dark-coated blazer with a fairly acceptable skirt with leg-wearing stockings and high heel shoes that are perfectly polished.

     It's a surprise that CSB is not what you expect from a Catholic institution with a liberal-minded student body. Some wearing uniforms, others wearing formal attire, and others wearing "normal clothing". It turns out, the school, for which many have thought has no existing uniform dress code, does have such.

    Later did I figured out that most of the schools of CSB have their own set of dress code (By the way, CSB have a dress code policy on what not to wear applicable to all students just so you know). If what I heard is correct, SMIT and SMS (School of Management and Information Technology and School of Multidisciplinary Studies respectively) students are required to wear formal attire although there are days were they can wear semi-formal to civilian attire (smart casual to casual). SHRIM (School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management) students have required to wear formal on certain days of the week as well as uniform attire (uniforms varies by year and major track). On the matter of CSB's SPaCE (School of Professional and Continuing Education) I have no idea as well as SDEAS (School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies). Good thing is that we from SDA (School of Design and Arts) doesn't have such a code.

    One reason probably is to instill the students from these certain schools a sense of professionalism in preparation of whatever career they may take in the future. That may be the reason why as early as their freshman year, students are required to obey their respective dress code. Too bad on the part of my fellow SHRIM friends, they told me that they weren't told by their seniors of this dress code being implemented and many had a hard time adjusting since they expect that they get to experience life without wearing school uniforms, or so they thought.

   From a non-uniform wearing student's view point, I feel kind of alienated whenever I'm around with uniform and formal-clad students, especially in classes where many of my classmates are from SHRIM and SMIT. I always think that these students are more proper, more organized and a lot primmer than us from SDA (Or so I thought) as well as a whole lot smarter.

    I contrast, those from SDA are somehow encouraged to be liberal-minded, wear anything they want to wear, reshape their hair whenever and be themselves. That's why I see many who wear: emo, goth, rock chic, rocker, urban, sport-themed, plain, outrageous, etc. from head to toe. On my part, I tend to wear green-colored shirts but now that I think about it, its getting kind of creepy for me to wear green all the time. As I write this, I'm wearing white for a change.

    Although I'm speaking nonsense here and feel kind of bias, I can't blame myself since that's how I think. Hopefully, time will pass and I would have a different point of view towards people wearing dress code-enforced attire. Especially now that I'm getting to know some of them in my classes, hopefully I'd be able to overcome it.

from a song sung by a trio in Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas, "It's just the way you are..."