Dean Gives SAIS a Makeover with Dress Code Policy
By Jonathan Raviv

In response to a growing chorus of complaints from guest speakers at events ranging from brown bags to luncheons to major lectures the Administration will be issuing guidelines later this month on student dress.

Following at least five events in the past two months, guests mentioned to their sponsoring departments that while they cherished the opportunity to speak, they were disappointed by the lack of respect indicated by the way some students in the audience dressed. In the past year, one student is reported to have worn ripped jeans and a t-shirt to a speech by a sitting head-of-state.

In an e-mail to be sent to the entire SAIS community, the new “Dressing for Success” code reflects standard dressing rules, such as those that already exist in top business schools (see the e-mail at www.SaisObserver.org). Basic rules ban t-shirts, jeans, shorts, and sneakers. Button-down shirts are recommended, but not required, while ties are optional.

Student response to the new guidelines is divided. Roy Pinera, 2nd year Middle East, agreed with the Administration decision.

 “When a guest comes to your house, the host should dress at least as nicely,” Pinera said. 

 Elizabeth Fobroy, 1st year IDev, however, took offense to “the Administration’s assumption that we are not responsible enough to make our own clothing decisions.” 

 Others see the logistical nightmare, since many students come to school in one set of clothes and work out in another. 
 
“Adding one more outfit to the mix is difficult . . . there is hardly enough room in the lockers let alone places to change,” according to James Riba, 1st Year AFP.

 Last year, when the school was in talks to bring President George W. Bush to Kenney Auditorium, the Administration quickly hired a new Assistant Dean for Standards and Protocol (AD S&P) in order to raise standards at the school which would in turn attract higher profile speakers. The strategy worked, as for the first time in school history SAIS was listed in Washingtonian magazine’s March list of “Top 100 Places to be Seen.” The new dress guidelines are part of this strategy, making SAIS students live up to the school’s rising place among Washington’s power circles. 
 
The rules, however, are crafted so as not to sacrifice SAIS’ uniqueness, specifically the student body’s individuality, creativity, and diversity.
 
“We are not trying to make everyone dress like upper-crust westerners,” Current AD S&P Michael Packer is quick to mention. 

To that end, the new guidelines include a section on “locality,” allowing students to dress in local styles as appropriate with the subject of the talk or event.

 Packer says that the new code is simply a way that the Administration will help students help themselves. 
 
“SAIS students,” he says, “are among the most well traveled group of individuals in the world, making our community wonderfully diverse and full of fascinating experiences.” 
 
His caveat, however, is that “significant time abroad creates bad habits. If you wear the same cargo pants and Birkenstocks to your bridge-building site in rural Guatemala for two years, your sense of what is and what isn’t appropriate will be slightly skewed. Ultimately, the new guidelines will help students’ re-adjustment process from backwater bumpkin to stiff-collar DC.”

To achieve this, the rules have to be slightly rigid in some cases. The “locality” section, for example, offers flexibility, but only to a certain extent. While students can wear jeans to Europe-themed events, they must be unflinchingly tight. T-shirts at Russian events are allowed, but again, only if they are tight and feature Vladimir Putin in some positive light. But dressing “Asian” for an Africa talk will be a flat out breach of new guidelines.

And if the subject of the talk is Europe and another country or region, then students may pick to sport duds from either, but not both. Packer says that combining two forms of dress could be distracting, slightly schizophrenic, and violate SAIS’ mission statement that aims to reinforce pre-existing cultural patterns, rather than create any new ones.

Critics point out that certain hybrid cultures already exist. For example, Asian fusion has been a popular trend in restaurants from New York City to Baltimore to Taipei for almost a decade. Nobu in New York, the brainchild of Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, offers dishes such as Matsuhisa Shrimp and Caviar, Sea Urchin in Spinach, and Teriyaki Beef, all definite nods to the infusion of American (beef) with Asian (teriyaki) that started over 100 years ago somewhere in Utah. Meanwhile, celebrity chef Roy Yamaguchi specializes in Hawaiian Fusion, with dishes such as Roasted Macadamia Nut Mahi Mahi (with lobster sauce) and Yellow Fin Ahi Poketini (without lobster sauce), both clear evidence that hybrid cultures exist in a delicious dichotomous relationship that breaks down cultural barriers, while also enlivening the taste buds. And if you’re not a fish fan, try the molé braised beef tenderloin – not so much for the tenderloin but for the mixed marinated mushrooms that come on the side, each hand-cultivated from their manure-laden pasture found in Oahi. For dessert, be sure not to miss the creamed macademia encrusted pecan tart, which does for the art of confection what Angelina Jolie did for African children.

(Out of 5)
Location: 3.25
Décor: 2.75
Service: 4.25
Food: 4.5

Jonathan Raviv enjoys watching Fox News and doesn’t know why everyone’s fussing over the Patriot Act.  His favorite book is 1984 despite the fact that he has yet to read it. You can see him at every brown bag, sitting in the front, sporting a dashing CK blazer atop an over-priced striped shirt.  And he always has a multi-part question with follow-ups because he likes the sound of his own voice. Indeed, he is that guy.