Dressed to impress or distress? 1

The North East Surrey College of Technology's prohibition of staff wearing jeans or baring their midriffs because this promotes a scruffy image ("Dress code given cold shoulder by union", June 3) has wide-ranging implications for professional practice, as does lecturers'

union Natfhe's opposition to it on the grounds that it aims to make lecturers appear to share one class and culture.

Both fail to distinguish between the types of casual clothing worn by lecturers and the diverse class and cultural messages they send out. Clean standard-fit jeans, button-through shirts and classic round-necked T-shirts are hard-wearing, easily laundered working clothes and are not as scruffy as dandruff-dusted, sweat-stained, dry clean-only cheap business suits.

The jeans and discreet top "uniform" worn by many intellectuals does not divert student attention from the ideas its wearers are paid to convey - unlike over-accessorised or skimpy costumes, which belong on catwalks.

Jeans-and-top combinations reflect the traditional mainstream values of physical and intellectual modesty intrinsic to the sense of shared purpose at the heart of Newman's idea of a university. Here, individualism was manifest in quality of thought, and senior staff were well-respected intellectuals confident enough in their authority to share a dress code with junior colleagues rather than apeing the uncomfortable, unhygienic, suit-clad style of managers.

However, midriff baring by anybody has no place in a university. It invites loss of authority and ridicule and is usually mesmerisingly repulsive to witness. Few people have midriffs taut enough for display. I was recently admitted to hospital by a doctor dressed in an outfit more appropriate for a zany children's television programme than a hospital. She wore a surly expression, low-cut flared jeans, a bare midriff and a T-shirt so low-cut that I saw everything from armholes to breakfast when she leaned over to examine me. I was left wondering whether her medical skills were as scant as her dress. Surely students feel similarly affronted when exposed to gratuitously bared flesh.

Bernadette Murphy
University College Chester