It’s below 80 degrees everyone! It’ time to pull out the sweatshirts, long socks, and boots. Down in Miami, everyone seems to classify temperatures in the 70s as cold weather. Students cannot wait to finally pull out their favorite sweatshirt or to dust off their old Ugg boots to strut around campus.

Sophomore Tyler J. states, “I just want to feel warm. If wearing a big purple coat means staying warm, then the school should allow it for the benefit of my health!” Sorry Tyler, but here’s the proper school attire: you have to wear the Sunshine uniform underneath all outerwear. You can wear any sweatshirt or sweater that is of school colors: grey, white, navy, or red. Socks of these colors are allowed on campus as well.
But why can’t we wear our royal blue Gators sweater? A few years ago, a rule was instated that the student body could wear any sweater of any color as long as a college logo is present. Now the rule has changed so that the sweatshirts can have a college logo as long as the sweatshirt is solid grey, white, navy, or red. Yet when students started to abuse the rule and started justifying school-illegal logos as colleges, problems started to arise. When asked why the rule was altered, Dean of Students Mr. Oronoz states, “Students were lying about colleges. It was just too much.” As a result, the privilege was taken away.
Student Genevieve G. thinks, “The chilly weather only lasts like a few weeks. I want to be able to wear the sweater of my choice.” She thinks that students should be allowed to wear whatever sweater they like, as long as it serves the purpose of keeping them warm. Perhaps Genevieve has a point. As long as the school uniform is worn underneath the outerwear, should students be allowed to wear any color sweatshirt due to the fact that ‘cold’ weather only comes through for a few weeks each year?
A rule that puzzles many is the permission to wear any color rain coat. If it rains more often than it gets cold, then why are students allowed to wear different colored raincoats but not sweatshirts? Mr. Oronoz notes, “This is not a fashion statement…The students have many options. White and grey sweaters were added to the dress code because most colleges create sweatshirts in that color. We added them to compromise.” So unless student government can persuade the administration to change the rule, you’ll have to put away all the different colored college sweatshirts for another time.