This year, Loyola Academy allowed its students to wear any Loyola sweatshirt for a brief period at the start of the second semester. In April, however, students were no longer able to wear said sweatshirts. While I understand Loyola’s reasoning for cutting back on the sweatshirts, I believe that allowing students to wear them year-round will provide not only a great service to the students but to the school as a whole.

As a student, I noticed that wearing a sweatshirt improved my productivity, morale, and confidence. That sounds ridiculous; that one piece of clothing can have that much effect on my academic (and even personal) life. However, according to studies, that claim might not be as ridiculous as it seems.

A study by Stormline found that 61% of people are more productive when the dress code is relaxed, and 80% of people who work in an environment with a dress code responded that they don’t find them useful.

Now, my argument is not against the uniforms as a whole, I simply believe the school should be more relaxed on its dress code, allowing students the option to wear any Loyola sweatshirt.

Science of Us cites a study stating that dressing down in a normally formal setting can also lead to high productivity rates. While not technically a full “dress down,” sweatshirts allow students to still feel as if they are dressing down (compared to just wearing the normal polos), allowing not only for higher productivity but for comfort and confidence as well.

Clothes have a great effect on how we feel. If you feel more comfortable in the clothes you are in, chances are you will be more confident. This confidence boost makes all the difference, especially when it comes to productivity and morale.

Chris Bailey, author of “The Productivity Project,” stated that “confidence and comfort are both ingredients we have at our disposal that allow us to become more productive.”

The warm fuzzy feeling students get from their sweatshirts, translates into a warm fuzzy feeling about school, giving them more motivation in the long run.

Additionally, a less strict dress code gives people room to express themselves, elevating creativity. When people feel happy and comfortable, they tend to be more creative and their work tends to be of higher quality. This benefits Loyola, as students are not only being more productive, but they are also doing better work.

Loyola should allow students to wear sweatshirts all year round, (and they can even keep the rule that they must be Loyola sweatshirts if they so choose, as in that case, students are still showing school spirit and it can even help build up morale around the school.)

As a student, I’ve seen how a little thing like wearing a sweatshirt has affected my academics first hand (in a good way!) and I’ve seen how having a little bit of freedom with the dress code has made me more comfortable and confident, increasing the productivity and quality of my work.

Perhaps, this might not be true for everyone, but it couldn’t hurt to see what effects allowing them could have.