Update: According to an email sent by the Upper School Dean of Students today, the requirement for skirts has been changed back to four inches for the beginning of the school year.

“At the suggestion of members of the ASB and Student Council, a committee will be formed consisting of students, faculty and parents to review the dress code,” Kevin Williamson said in his email to the student body. “This will be a student led process under the guidance of adults in the community. This committee will be formed after we have settled into the new school year.”

The dress code for the 2014-2015 school year had been temporarily updated until today, changing the required length of skirts and dresses for girls to knee-length. This change had been made for the convenience of the faculty members who enforce the dress code.

“We would like to create the appropriate work environment for the school day,” Williamson explained. “Unfortunately, the previous rule was not being respected by many students, and that made others in the community uncomfortable. We were put into a position where we had to actually start measuring skirt length on a regular basis, and this needed to come to an end.”

According to an email sent by Williamson on August 13, the dress code for Matriculation was to be different than that of the rest of the school year, and the new rule was to take effect on the first day of classes on Monday.

The updated dress code stated that “skirts and dresses are acceptable, provided they are knee-length at minimum. Wearing tights or leggings does not change the required length of the skirt or dress.”

After the school posted the edited dress code in the student portal’s Back-to-School Hub, students’ opinions ranged from ambivalence to dismay. Some students, like Molly Wancewicz (10), were concerned with the price of long skirts.

“Finding a knee-length skirt is challenging enough as it is, but most of the styles of skirts that the new dress code allows are very expensive, not suited to teenagers’ tastes, and unflattering,” she said. “I think that the new dress code change will result in most girls wearing long pants all the time, which will be uncomfortable in the hot weather, but a better alternative than buying an expensive skirt that may or may not look good.”

A number of students took to Facebook to voice their opinions about the new dress code.

Cordelia Larsen (11), former Harker student, heavily objected to the new rule online. “I think this idea of making girls wear knee length skirts is not only rather sexist and a huge step backwards in the eyes of our pretty extremely liberal generation, but it’s practically impossible for us to carry out,” she said. “Furthermore, the issue of distracting teenage boys in the classroom disrespects their levels of control, their morals, and their dedication to the academics.”

As seen in her Facebook post, Cordelia urged the student body to take action by having boys wear skirts to school.

Other posts, such as that of Rachel Rentaria (11), disagreed with accusations that the new rule was sexist.

Juhi Gupta (12) expressed her disappointment with the rule change.

“I think the dress code change is honestly unrealistic and definitely not a move that’s going to remove more problems,”she said. “Earlier, we were allowed more, and now we’re allowed less. It seems like a punishment and a step backwards, which really shouldn’t be the way such a progressive school functions.

Though Juhi did not support the change to the dress code, she agreed that the rule was probably not created because short skirts were distracting.

Other groups of students made efforts to take action against the new policy. Skirt the Rules, a Facebook group that currently has 181 members, was created by students to protest the change. Its mission statement is to “hopefully get organized about the new dress code and how to respectfully push against the change.”

Melina Nakos (11), one of the founders of the page, urged students to remain mature in their protests.

Others, like Lev Septov (11), started writing a petition with a few other students to try to fuel change.

“I saw a lot of complaining happening on Facebook and that’s all that it was,” he said. “I wanted people to organize themselves and fight back.”

The petition was tabled after ASB started to talk with the administration.

ASB President Sarah Bean (12), ASB Vice President Jessica Chang (12), and junior class Treasurer Shreya Sunkara (11) took the issue to Williamson to discuss a solution that would appeal to both the students and faculty. In a Facebook post, Jessica informed the student body about what prompted the dress code to be changed and what the student council is doing to come up with another solution.

Shreya said she understood the reason for the change, but was also willing to help out the students in order to meet the faculty halfway.

“As of right now, I think we can all agree that the current dress code is not ideal,” she said. “After talking to Mr. Williamson, however, I begin to see the administration’s perspective behind the change.”

“The conversation was very upbeat,” Williamson said of his discussion with student council. “I was impressed with the open-mindedness of Sarah Bean, Jessica Chang, and Shreya Sunkara. Change can be hard, especially on student council officers who are ultimately the messengers between the school and the student body.”

He continued to comment on student complaints about the cost of buying new skirts. “While skirts are a nice option,” he said, “shorts and pants are also permitted, so there are other options if cost is a factor.”

Senior class President Savi Joshi (12) and junior class Vice President Sanil Rajput (11) reached out to their classes on their respective class Facebook pages.

Despite the strong opinions surrounding the dress code change, some students, like Anuva Mittal (10), did not feel personally affected by the new rule.

“The changing of the dress code isn’t really a big deal for me because I don’t wear dresses or skirts often, so I’ll just find a way to manage when I actually have to dress fancy for school.” she said.

According a Facebook post by Sarah, on August 12, the student council is still trying to work out an agreement with the administration even though some ideas were rejected.

The first-ever committee to vote on the Upper School dress code will be formed later this year.