The Observer, September 22, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 4
A Fresh Perspective: Respect others to avoid unwanted drama
When in high school, college is presented simply as the next step in education. Teachers conveniently leave out all the great times you will have with your dorm-mates, those frustrating calculus problems, and the opportunities of meeting an entirely new friend base. They don't talk about the lessons you learn fending for yourself, buying food, and doing your own laundry. They definitely don't mention the significant lessons you learn about yourself and person-to-person interactions.
The most important lesson I feel that college students learn is respect for every person as an individual. A student is not going to be very well-liked if he cannot tolerate anyone who is not exactly like him. Friendships are based on complements, not duplicates.
The reason I bring this up is that there was a small incident in my dorm this past week involving this issue. On the floor above me, there is a certain person who has a slightly unique taste in clothing: he prefers to go shirtless at all times. Let's call him "Fred." At first, it was kind of weird to see him all the time, but we eventually got used to it, and it became a part of his personality.
This week, Fred visited my floor while I was chilling in the common room…with a shirt on. This immediately provoked questions from the group of people who were there. The story turned out to be that some girls came up to him and told him that they were planning on filing a sexual harassment report with a Resident Assistant if he didn't "clothe" himself. Being the kind person he is, Fred opted to acquiesce and put on a shirt.
There are so many things wrong with this entire situation. First of all, sexual harassment? A shirtless man walking around a dormitory is far from sexual harassment. Fred was not forcing himself upon anyone, nor was he doing anything to make anyone uncomfortable. If he was making the girls uncomfortable, they could have just asked him to put a shirt on, not threaten to file a sexual harassment suit that wasn't based on solid grounds to begin with. Ever been to the beach, ladies?
Secondly, last time I checked, there wasn't a specific dress code on campus, especially not in the dorms. The dorms are where we live, and if Fred went around without a shirt at his home, it is only natural that habit would follow him to college.
And lastly, if you have nothing better to do at this amazing school than to complain about one single person who doesn't wear a shirt, you really need to get out more. At a university with such diversity, it is important to just be understanding of others, and problems like this won't even arise. It all goes back to the saying, "Everything I need to know, I learned in kindergarten."
