In her first three weeks of presidency, Dr. Kayla Hale has kept her schedule full. She has officially moved into the President’s Residence on campus, welcomed Chickasha students back to school, met with OCW alumni, and has begun reviewing all of the university’s policies.
She stated that by reviewing the policies she is familiarizing herself with the university and its procedures, as well as ensuring that the university is compliant with the Department of Education’s guidelines.
As she works through the list of policies, several are being renewed. Two of those policies include the Dress Code Policy and the Remote Work Policy, both of which are effective Monday, Aug. 21. She stated that she values transparency and will share information as freely as she can, as she believes it creates a happier and more trusting work environment.
“We are a university, we are an institution of learning, and we invite people onto our campus as perspective students, area business leaders, moms and dads, faculty, staff,” Dr. Hale said. “We should be proud to reflect a professional point of view to everybody we interact with.”
A draft of the Dress Code Policy states that employees of the university “are expected to wear clothing that is appropriate for the job and work site.” It continues to state that the clothing should be “neat, clean, in good business taste and shall not constitute a safety hazard.” Dr. Hale emphasized that the dress code is only for faculty and staff, not students.
The procedure element of the policy ends with a line that reads: “Supervisors will be responsible for determining whether attire is unprofessional on a case-by-case basis.” Dr. Hale said she has encouraged her leadership team to take ownership of the new policies and encourage the staff and faculty; although, she said she does expect some push back. Towards the end of the policy, a line states that a supervisor must send an employee home if they violate the dress code with instructions to change into acceptable attire and return to work.
Dr. Hale said she believes that as far as dress code policies are concerned, this is a fairly tame one. The policy has nine bullet points of unacceptable items, which includes:
- Rubber flip flops
- Clothing with potentially offensive graphics or words
- Overalls, sweats, pajamas, strapless tops, workout clothes or jogging suits
- Hats or caps, unless medically necessary
- Jeans or pants with substantial holes, frays, cuts, or stains
- Leggings unless worn with an appropriate length dress, skirt or top
- Halter tops, sheer or revealing clothing (e.g., bare midriffs, short miniskirts, tube tops)
- Spaghetti-strap tops of dresses unless covered by a jacket or sweater
- T-shirts (except on Spirit Fridays)
There are four exceptions to the policy, including maintenance and grounds staff, athletics coaching staff, religious beliefs, and Spirit Fridays. The exceptions section states that university staff that conducts physical labor can wear clothing suitable for their jobs. A similar exception is available to the coaching staff, as they may wear clothing that is suitable for indoor and outdoor events. Another exception reads that employees staffing student events may wear spirit wear when appropriate.
A section concerning religious beliefs states that the university recognizes the importance of and will reasonably accommodate individually held religious beliefs unless undue hardship is created. Finally, Spirit Fridays allows employees to wear USAO branded clothing. The clothing must be clean, appropriately fitted, and not faded, worn, or stretched out.
“As far as out staff go, so many of our staff are public facing. We have moms and dads coming into the Financial Aid Office, we have people coming to get copies of their transcripts. We do business out in the community and our community comes to our campus,” Dr. Hale said. “We want to be reflective of the seriousness in which we take our role, which is to educate young minds, bring class after class of students in, who will be changed by this place in the best way possible.”
Dr. Hale said she is looking for ways to ensure that the university is serving its students, which is why the Remote Work Policy has supplanted the university’s “In-State Remote Work or Condensed Work Week Guidelines for Staff” pilot study, which began Oct. 17, 2022, and ended June 30, 2023.
Only 12 people signed up for remote work consideration through the pilot study, according to Dr. Hale. She said that it did not seem to have a lot of interest, which is why the new policy is supplanting the old one. As the work environment returns to a new normal post-pandemic, Dr. Hale wants to ensure that students are being met in the best possible place.
“It just basically summarizes that if you are requesting remote work, there’s a process that you follow. You have to report to your supervisor, fill out the same forms you were asked to fill out during this pilot study, and then it’s up to you and the supervisor to work that out,” Dr. Hale said.
Both policies are some of the first changes that Dr. Hale has made during her presidency thus far. She said that other updates will follow. She continued to say that she is working closely with HR and the senior leadership team on a wide variety of projects, including compliancy checks, updating the university’s website, how to utilize federal delegations, and more.
“I’m a new leader, so I’m looking at things with a different eye,” Dr. Hale said.
As Dr. Hale continues to look at new ways to enhance campus, she said she is open to new suggestions, ideas, and conversations – it’s who she is she said. One area she said she would welcome ideas about is the process of getting Willard Hall and Addams Hall back online. She stated that the campus is a National Historic Society, and she wants to look into better utilizing the federal delegation the campus is allotted, including building upgrades.
Dr. Hale said that USAO is seeing a record number of incoming students on campus this year, which has caused a few students to use the Alumni House for student housing. While having record numbers of students is a good problem to have, Dr. Hale said it would be an easier problem to work through if either hall was back online.
Emily Loughridge is a third-year communication major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
