Employee Dress Code Under Fire

When Steven F. Sakis '98 was told last Tuesday to either shave his goatee or not show up for work at Harvard Dining Services again, he was a little upset.

"I thinking it's pretty annoying...They allow mustaches a lot thicker than what my goatee was," Sakis said. "I work in the dish room, [and] I don't see how having a goatee would affect my scraping dishes. There isn't too much of a connection there."

Director of Dining Services Michael P. Berry said the regulation is part of the dining services' employee dress code.

"[Having a beard] is not against union regulations; it's against our dress code. Employees must be clean-shaven," Berry explained.

This rule was established in the 1970s, Berry said. This regulation is listed under "Information For Student Employees" and states, "Students must be well-groomed and may not have beards."

Berry wrote in a fax that he will "have to review and update this 'high v controversial subject."

State law requires that beards must be placed in a hair net the same way as hair on top of the head, Berry said.

Asked whether a goatee constitutes a beard, Berry said, "How small is small? Either you say none or all."

Former Harvard Dining Services employee Michael B. Garcia '97 worked in the dish room his first year at Harvard and said he disagrees with the facial hair prohibition.

"I thought it was a silly rule, because people could have mustaches," Garcia said. "It wasn't like people had beards down to their belly buttons. It's not like we're hiding food."

Several students said yesterday that they thought HDS's rule was inconsistent.

"The whole mustache/goatee discrimination thing has got to go," said goatee wearer Michael B. Smith '97. "Maybe in the 1970's when beards were more commonplace the regulation would have made sense."

But unless the regulation is changed soon, students will have to follow the rule.

Yesterday, Sakis arrived clean-shaven to work at the Eliot-Kirkland kitchen link.