Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Jensen on Professorial Dress Codes Redux

I have never met Case Western Law Professor Erik Jensen. For all I know, he may be the greatest guy in the world. With that disclaimer out of the way, however, the dude is seriously bugging me. Regular readers of this space will recall that I have had occasion to call out Jensen in the past. Unfortunately, he’s still pushing his proposal for a law faculty dress code, this time in an Inside Higher Ed column that presumably is addressed not just at law professors but at the professoriat as a whole.

Faculty members shall, when on college grounds or on college business, dress in a way that would not embarrass their mothers, unless their mothers are under age 50 and are therefore likely to be immune to embarrassment from scruffy dressing, in which case faculty members shall dress in a way that would not embarrass my mother.

You might think that I - a self-identified reactionary and curmudgeon - would empathize with Jensen’s goals. F-word that. I’m old, tired, and cranky. Life’s too short to go through it being uncomfortable.