By Mandy Hui ‘23
With St. Mark’s returning to in-person learning this year after two years of remote and hybrid learning, St. Mark’s dress code has finally been reinforced. The past two years have been chaotic and ever-changing for the institution, leading to the dress code being temporarily relaxed. A lot of St. Markers were enthusiastic about the sudden change from the school’s usual academic and formal atmosphere to a more laid-back environment. However, for the 2022-2023 academic year, the school decided to return with its notorious dress code while many St. Markers were still used to the faculty’s lenient attitudes towards the dress code.
At the beginning of this academic year, a multitude of St. Mark’s students were still not complying with the school’s dress code, continuing to wear non-school sweatshirts, sweatpants, and leggings. To respond to this, starting two weeks after spring break, St. Mark’s will implement a harsher dress code for students: Academic day dress will now be the same as the chapel dress code. These new changes mean that students will have to wear formal attire to academic classes daily instead of just for the monthly evening chapel. Students will be expected to dress in either a suit and tie, including blazers, or a dress that is an appropriate length, with a cardigan (or whatever else that seems suitable), and shoes must be closed-toes. If students are seen not following the new dress code, they will be facing much harsher consequences than ever before. They will be sent to the dean's office to talk to the dean of students, and they will be asked to write a 5 page paper to reflect on their actions and explain why dress code is an integral part of St. Mark’s. Not only that, but guilty students will also be sent to detention for four consecutive weeks (the entire month), and they will also be banned from leaving St. Mark’s campus for those four weekends. This was decided to hopefully change the students’ laid-back attitude and to get them to respect the school’s dress code more. Not many students are aware of this new change, and the school intentionally kept this away from the majority of the student body because they wanted to prevent as much backlash as possible from students and parents, hoping to enforce this new rule before anyone can object. These extreme measures made by the school will definitely get students to take the dress code more seriously.
