The university administration has made the decision to implement highly-requested school uniforms … or so it thought.

Faculty and staff have joined together these last few weeks brainstorming ideas on how to bring more school spirit to the students.

“Final edits to the policy are in the works to be implemented for the 2022-2023 academic year,” said Callie Rimpfel, Dean of Students.

Not only did faculty and staff feel uniforms would bring forward more school spirit, they believe they will be more convenient for students.

“Hopefully this also helps when students wake up 10 minutes before class. They will know exactly what to wear,” said Rimpfel.

Kilts, skirts, khaki pants, button ups, and other uniform-like clothing are being explored in hopes of finding what works best for students. The faculty and staff feel it is essential that students have options.

“Currently, we are exploring options additional to the traditional school uniform,” said Rimpfel. “Kilts are probably going to be included. We are also looking into acceptable clothing options for in the residence halls. We are thinking comfortable athleisure wear. Any suggestions or designs can be sent to my email at [email protected].”

Faculty and staff feel uniforms are a great idea and students will be on board; however, reactions from students were not all positive.

“I think that if Misericordia implemented uniforms, I would cry,” said Nursing major Savannah Baldwin.

This type of reaction is abundant among other students and adjusting to this new reality will take some time.

“I’d be sad if the school got uniforms. Blue and gold aren’t colors that look good on me,” said Speech Language Pathology major Mackenzie Rinehart.

Students understand wanting to bring more school spirit to Misericordia but don’t feel uniforms are the most effective way to do that.

Female students are especially having a hard time getting behind having to wear skirts every day.

“I don’t want to shave my legs every day; it’s a tundra up here,” Rinehart said. “I need to wear pants.”

Students feel it would be out of the ordinary for a college to implement uniforms and were unable to name any other universities that require students to wear them.

“One thing I will say is that I would save a lot of time in the morning if I just had a set uniform everyday,” Rinehart added. “I would also save a lot of money not spending money on new clothes.”

“There’s not a lot of washers and dryers available in the dorms so I feel like people would start to stink wearing the same thing every day,” said Baldwin.

Faculty and staff came up with an alternate plan in case the idea backfired with students.

“There are talks with HR about a staff and faculty uniform requirement,” Rimpfel said. “Rumor has it that faculty senate, well really only Dr. Curran, is demanding that Hawaiian shirts are acceptable attire.”

Uniforms will be required for students starting fall 2022 regardless of the reaction from students.