Clothes Make the Student

The Hipsters, the Jocks, the Metrosexuals, the Schoolies, the Goth’s, the Bros, the Geeks, the Gamers, the Stoners, the Skanks. The University of Milwaukee is home to one of the most diverse campuses in the state of Wisconsin if not in the entire Midwest. If you want to know where you fit in, a quick stroll through campus reveals all. Just look for those that dress like you.

In the center of campus a man walks down Spaights plaza. He is heading from the union to the Gold Meir library. He is old. Maybe thirty or forty, he lugs around a blue backpack. His hairline is receding, and waistline expanding. He wears a brown zip up jacket, black Velcro sketchers and an attitude of seriousness. He belongs to the non- traditional, or as the students call them, the Returns.

Continue to walk straight and you’ll be on your way to the Klotsche Center. Here you’ll run into to two subcultures, the Jocks and the Bros. Like so many of the cliques on campus they are separated by not only their actions, vocabulary, and demeanor but also by what they wear.

Clothing is a reflection of self. A way for people to express themselves. The Bros wear tank tops, and tight or revealing clothing. Unfortunately for the rest of campus the Bros are not able to pull this look off, no matter how much they insist they can. The Jocks are the one wearing the sweats and on their feet, a pair of new Nikes. Walk through the woods to Sandburg and you’ll run into mainly freshman stoners. The beanie hats, the baggy pants, and the red eyes are an iconic in stoner culture.

If it’s a weekend night as you are headed out of Sandburg lobby, you will get passed by a group of Skanks. They are usually girls.

Tipsy by the time they are heading out of the building, you will see them together wearing revealing clothing. Short Skirts, tight pants and shirts with plunging necklines are common place. The smell of perfume masking alcohol fills the air as they stumble by.

Tired from walking around campus, you take a seat on the bench near Maryland Avenue. It’s eleven in the morning. A common time for classes to be let out. The campus fills with thousands of students. You look at their clothing and place them into cliques. The man that skated by in the skinny jeans and the glasses? A total Hipster. The kid in the beanie? A Stoner. Metrosexuals, Goths, Geeks, Gamers, Jocks, Bros, and Losers all walk past. UWM is a campus of diversity and you’re a part of it.