By Sam Oboke

	Skimpy dressing is on the increase at Makerere University. The girls at this 
campus are out competing each other in the art of skimpy dressing to the extent of 
walking barely naked. This forced me to talk to a few old girls (really old girls) 
who were at campus years (more than five years) ago to seek their opinions about 
this trend. They all agreed that this kind of dressing would not have been tolerated
on campus during their time. "We would heckle the young lady to tears and she would 
not appear in public for a week", one of them told me. Another grey haired old boy 
attributed it to the present private sponsorship scheme. The scheme has polarised 
the student community to the extent that they can no longer talk with one voice on 
serious issues like indecent dressing at the Ivory Tower, he said. In the past, 
Makerere University used to be the litmus papers for testing any issue, national or
international, but that is no more, he said. "During our time, issues like this 
wouldn't go unchallenged, considering that these skimpy dressed girls are being 
groomed to be role models for our future generation. This has a lot of impact on 
the young girls in secondary school", he added. I have noticed that skimpy dressing 
increases with each fresh intake at the University, because the young girls at lower
levels come to Makerere when they have already copied campus style of dressing, 
lamented one parent.
	The skimpy dressing at campus come in many forms and the consequences are as diverse. 
There is this very light skinned fresher who nearly got herself killed at the university
main gate recently. This girl was right in the middle of the road when a strong gust 
of wind suddenly blew up her minisicule skirt wrapper, exposing a pair of very brown 
thighs and all to the eyes of everyone who was around there. By reflex action she threw
up her clip board and books and grabbed her skirt to try and repair the damage. 
These are some of the problems these girls experience all for the sake of fashion. 
It is quite a common sight to see girls at campus with one hand holding books while 
the other continously tugs or pulls at a short skirt to keep it in place.
There is also another girl who brought activity in Lumumba Hall to a halt because of 
her body geography. This one was in a class of her own and seemed to have done it to
 taunt the elephants. She was clad in tight fitting and hip hugging blue jeans that 
looked like they had been painted on. For a blouse she wore a black and white zebra 
stripped see through vest that stopped just below her breasts, which breasts seemed 
to want to burst out of her vest to freedom. Around her waist, was a bunch of brightly
 coloured beads. Mindless of the attention she drew, she confidently climbed the steps
 of A' block and disappeared in some room upstairs. But believe me, every elephant was 
glued to the spot with mouth hanging open and her scent still tantalising them.
I have no grudge with young girls wearing trousers, provided they are decent trousers.
 However, at campus there are so many kinds of tight fitting trousers of very light 
material that very many girls are fond of. If you look at a girl putting on this kind 
of trouser, with all of her proportions defined and such detail exposed in public,
 you feel assaulted.
	Then the mini skirts. They are alright when the owners are either walking or standing
 but any other posture is disaster. With Makerere's current overcrowding, seats in the
 lecture halls and exam rooms are on first come first serve basis. On this unfortunate
 day, Tony, a third BA student arrived late in the exam room and found the only vacant 
seat next to a girl in a very short skirt. Other guys had actually fled the danger zone 
because they wanted to do their exams in peace. From the moment he sat down, he could
 not concentrate. All he had read the previous evening fled from his databank as the 
girl tugging at her mini skirts, from time to time also kept flashing him knowing 
smiles each time their eyes met. 
	The question is, by tugging constantly at their mini skirts, are these girls aware
 that something is grossly wrong with those dresses, why then wear them in the first place?