College Dress Relief (CDR) at Slippery Rock University is a student advocacy group dedicated to diversity, sustainability and professional development. The club is “here to shine a light on how each person communicates their lifestyle, thoughts, purposes, feelings and personality…through fashion,” according to its CORE page.
Though the organization was originally created so that students in the communication department could apply classroom concepts to real-life projects and portfolios, it has since become much more than that.
“We like to define ourselves as activists,” junior and co-president Jadyn Furge said.
In the past, the club has worked to uphold its values through events and social media campaigns.
“In May, around Earth Day, we had people post with our hashtag or [direct message] us to submit their favorite thrift finds,” Furge said.
Afterward, CDR members chose a winner who received a small prize.
“We also work to showcase different cultures through our social media,” Furge said.
Another event the club puts on is its annual Halloween costume contest with a $25 gift card for the winner.
“It’s a social media campaign on our Instagram where people submit pictures of their Halloween costume, then we within the club pick the top four costumes we like the best and leave it up to our Instagram followers from there,” Furge said.
CDR hopes to host a clothing drive in spring 2023, though event details are not yet clear.
The club meets every Thursday during common hour in Eisenberg Classroom Building. Meetings focus on different subjects every time, though food, fun and music are almost guaranteed.
“We like to have different workshops,” Furge said. “This week it was a photography workshop. We’ve done blog workshops in the past, and for costume contests, we have whole meetings dedicated to voting and reviewing submissions.”
This semester brought many new members to the group, so meetings lately have been focused on getting to know everyone better.
“Some people get a little thrown off at first by CDR because it is so fashion-focused,” Furge said. “Regardless of your fashion taste, or even if you don’t like fashion that much and you’d prefer to work on lifestyle, writing, photography or social media, there is room for everyone.”
