OAU denies banning skimpy dresses, tattoos, dreadlocks for students
The university said the authors of the trending circular were deliberately mischievous and disruptive.
The management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun State, has denied a report that it reviewed the dress code for students on campus and placed a ban on certain hairstyles like dreadlocks, as well as tattoos.
In a circular that went viral on social media on Monday, August 28, 2023, OAU reportedly asked students to desist from wearing anything covering their faces and also banned opposite-sex students from sitting on each other’s lap.
The school management was quoted as saying sexually provocative dresses would no longer be allowed on the campus.
The circular also noted the university’s ban on sagging of trousers or knickers for males and females, hair braiding for males, nose, mouth, eye or extra rings, crop/jump tops, unconventional wearing of caps, tattoo/indelible markings for males, multicoloured braid for females, haircuts with inscriptions, T-shirts with obscene inscriptions depicting immorality, hooliganism, among others.
It allegedly vowed that heavy make-up, rumpled and dirty clothes, and hair braiding or weaving by male students would no longer be tolerated on the campus.
According to the circular, violators of the dress codes would be rusticated from the school for one semester while in addition, any student found with coloured hairstyles, hair braiding for males, or spangled hairstyles for males would be rusticated for two semesters.
The university has now distanced itself from the circular, noting that the dress code will not be implemented. In a statement, the school said the document was not officially released by the appropriate authorities.
“Though such a decision was being considered, the management would avoid whatever could portray the university in a bad light and bring it on a collision course with any of its different stakeholders,” the university said.
OAU advised students, parents, guardians and all other members of the public to disregard the information in the circular.