You are here: HomeNews2008 04 30Article 143194

General News of Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Source: GNA

UCC lecturer advocates the wearing on African style clothing on campuses

Cape coast, April 30, GNA- Professor Samuel Yeboah Mensah, Dean of Science at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), on Wednesday, appealed to authorities at the various universities to encourage the frequent wearing of African style clothing by students.

He said this would help curb the wearing of saggy, loose and skimpy clothes by the students, and argued that unlike African clothes that make one look attractive and presentable, imported clothes exposed most parts of the body.

Prof. Mensah, who made the suggestion, when the GNA in Cape Coast went to the UCC to ascertain his views about the prescription of a dress code for students, said he was not in favour of that, and observed that the "issue of indecent dressing, was complex to deal with in this modern day".

He however, pointed out that clothes that "expose some parts of the human body and make people look like they are mentally unfit should not be accepted in our society", but said no lecturer has the authority to dismiss any student from the lecture hall because of the way they are dressed.

According to him, that "decision rests with the administration", and defined indecent dressing as the wearing of clothes that attract negative attention to a person.

For his part, Mr Samuel Bert Boadi-Kusi, the President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) said the university was a place for matured students and that prescribing a dress code for students was "unacceptable and is not the solution to curbing indecent dressing". He told the GNA that the Council, has however, been able "to control" indecent dressing by introducing the wearing of Ghanaian clothes to most of the functions on campus, thereby increasing business for many dressmakers around the university.

Many of the students the GNA spoke to said, they would not comply if the school authorities should introduce a dress code, and would go all out to resist it.