A professional clothing closet is currently in the works at SXU. It has been called Champ’s Closet and will serve the purpose of providing students with the professional clothing they will need as they obtain internships or enter the workforce.
The closet will offer things such as dress pants, button-down shirts and blouses, blazers, dress shoes, belts, and possibly handbags.
When asked about the closet, Angela Pirlott, Ph.D., who is the director of the Women and Gender Studies Program at SXU and one of the many hands involved with the closet, said “The closet will be a professional clothing closet for students where people can donate professional clothing to the closet and then students who have interviews or start an internship can have their first-day outfit.”
Pirlott insisted that this was not her idea and that it came up during a “faculty-wide meeting” and that the Center for Success, along with other hands, is hugely responsible for the work behind trying to get the closet started.
During this meeting, it was pointed out that the university “needs to keep finding new ways to better support students” and more than one department had the same idea to jump-start this closet.
“The Center for Success will officially oversee it and the plan for right now is that students will be able to make appointments through the Center for Success and students can be let in and check out the clothes and pick out what they need.”
Regarding where the closet currently stands in being renovated, Pirlott says “We have the space. The space has been cosmetically updated. Now we just have to have to work on getting the garment racks, some accessory holders, and a portable changing space. It’ll take some time to obtain these things, especially if we try to get them for free but we are also looking for donations.”
In addition to having the goal of providing students with professional clothing for their career endeavors, the closet also strives to be gender and size-inclusive. Pirlott stated, “We just want to make sure that we have clothing that is size and gender-inclusive and not just for male or female but broader than that so that all body types and gender identities will feel comfortable with what the closet has.”
The biggest question remaining about the closet is how frequently will it receive donations and how quickly the closet will become empty. In response to this, Pirlott said that they will be relying on donations made by alumni of SXU and those working on the closet cannot foresee how this will play out until the closet is started.
Jenny DeVivo, Ph. D., who is the Executive Director of Mission and Heritage at SXU, is also working to get this closet started. She commented the closet will “give one more resource to help our students enter the workforce and become established professionals.”
DeVivo went on to say “Despite the fact that we are trying really hard to tell humanity ‘Don’t judge people on their looks’, it is still a reality that when you go to a job interview, if you are not dressed professionally, it is held against you and people do absolutely judge you on how professional you present yourself.”
She also emphasized that the closet is “a deep part of our mission and who we are as a Catholic institution sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy” and is part of a seven-year commitment that SXU has made to create more initiatives to better support students.
The seven-year commitment that Saint Xavier has made is in relation to Laudato Si, which, as explained by DeVivo, “is a document written by Pope Francis in 2015 and then in 2021, he came up with the Laudato Si action platform which is a seven-year plan that educational institutions were urged to join. There’s a separate page for the Laudato Si platform called “University Pathway” which is where SXU plans for future initiatives, including Champ’s closet, come into play.
When asked about how to support Champ’s Closet, DeVivo said you can “watch for things such as if we are asking for donations” for things such as hangers or professional clothing as well as monetary donations, and volunteering for the closet is also welcome when it officially starts.
Devivo concluded by saying “It is a need and we are responding to it but is something that is also deeply faithful to who we are as a Catholic institution.”
Champ’s Closet is still in the process of being created, but once it is started, it will be located in G-300A.