New Delhi: St. Stephen’s College has introduced a new dress code, barring students from wearing shorts in classrooms, the chapel, the assembly hall, the library and the dining hall.
On 26 July, the Delhi University college issued a notice outlining the new rules, prohibiting shorts in several academic and common spaces. The move has triggered discussion among students and online.
“This has become routine in Delhi University colleges. Students now receive more notices about dos and don’ts than academic matters,” said a second-year political science student on condition of anonymity. “The college should also clarify what it actually means by ‘shorts’ and define what qualifies as ‘too short’ under the new dress code.”
As soon as the directive was made public, many students decided to resist the ban by wearing shorts to college the following day.
“Students across genders turned up in shorts. It was also decided that the student body would send a letter to the admin criticising this rule,” said a second-year history student.
Many students said the rule had existed for years but had never been formally communicated. Most assumed it had become an obsolete directive, although the policy reportedly continued to be enforced in the dining hall.
“We have been wearing shorts since the notification was issued, but avoid facing the principal when she is on the move,” the history student said.
Students are also planning to condemn the decision through a letter to the college administration.
“It’s clearly not reasonable. The whole idea of decency and indecency regarding human bodies, especially female ones, is a colonial and patriarchal understanding. Any academic institution must be a space for unlearning and challenging such problematic ideas of modesty, not reinforcing and propagating them,” added the history student.
Dress code debate
The notice further adds a ‘no smoking’ policy, a ‘clean campus’ initiative, and instructs students to carry their college ID cards at all times.
“You may be required to present your ID before entering the Dining Hall for meals,” the notice added.
The notice and the new regulations have sparked a debate online over clothing etiquette in a university setting. While some social media users supported the decision, others called it another instance of “moral policing” by the college.
“Even universities in the UK expect you to dress with basic decency. Would you go to the office in shorts? No. Then how are educational institutions any different?” wrote a user on Instagram.
“A college library needs quiet minds, not uniform policing,” said another.
However, this is far from the first instance of dress code rules or notices banning Western or short attire making headlines.
Earlier this April, 19-year-old Saarah Sharma of Daulat Ram College was stopped from sharing the stage with Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya at a women’s empowerment event at her college because she was wearing a sleeveless kurti.
“In a place like Delhi, where extreme summer heat regularly crosses 44°C, forcing students out of basic, comfortable clothing like shorts is entirely impractical and absurd. What next? Are students expected to turn up in ghagras in the middle of a heatwave?” she said, speaking about the new guidelines of St. Stephen’s.
In 2021, the University of Lucknow barred hostel residents from wearing shorts and certain Western clothes outside their hostel rooms. In 2024, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Odisha, banned “Western” and short dresses during its annual festival to promote Indian ethnic attire.
The Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), founded by students from the School of Open Learning, Delhi University, has also condemned the St. Stephen’s College’s dress code directive, stating that the institution should not engage in moral policing.
“KYS upholds the right to freedom of expression. The organisation is also of the opinion that the college must refrain from moral policing and demands immediate withdrawal of the said notification,” the organisation said in a statement.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)