Andrew Carrere ’19

---

Senior privileges are a great reward for students to look forward to senior year during their time at Strake Jesuit, and the school could easily implement yet another springtime reward for seniors: Spirit Dress Fridays. Seniors would be allowed to wear spirit dress once per week, on Fridays, according to the dress code already articulated in Community Life.

Opponents could object that allowing seniors to have spirit dress on a weekly basis would inspire them to find more and more ways to loosen the reins on the dress code. Before long, students would be trying to get away with things like athletic shorts, open-toed shoes, or other non-Strake Jesuit attire. What this objection does not take into account, however, is that every student is allowed spirit dress on select days throughout the year already, when most everyone follows the relatively lax rules. Teachers also do a good job of identifying the wrong dress in students quite easily.

Additionally, since Strake Jesuit already has numerous senior privileges in place, the implementation of Spirit Dress Fridays would not be too extreme compared to current privileges. Students are already able to leave campus for lunch, sit in the front of the Parsley Center during assemblies and mass, get exempt from second-semester exams (if they have an A), and get to cut the lunch line. So Spirit dress on Fridays would add an interesting new bonus to keep seniors happy later in high school while giving the rest of the student body something else to look forward to.

An objection I have involves the issue of fairness and whether or not spirit dress for seniors alone would create a sense of division between grade levels. However, there are many privileges already in place that, to my knowledge, have never sparked conflict among students of different grade levels.

Many other schools already have this practice. Saint Agnes Academy even does this with their students currently. The fact that our sister institution has been able to implement such a form of spirit dress means that it is definitely something Strake could and should consider for the future of our school.

Implementation would be very easy and the transition would be smooth. The new privilege would satisfy already standing Jesuit policies on the spirit dress clothing so the execution would be exactly the same as the occasional Spirit Dress days already in place. Visible Strake Jesuit attire, athletic shoes, shorts with a belt, and a tucked in shirt would be appropriate and in good taste—with students already well aware of what they can and cannot get away with.