Some business students at Illinois State University don’t have to spiff up for class anymore — unless they’re trying to raise their grades. The university’s marketing department announced on Tuesday that it had revised a strict dress code introduced at the beginning of the semester.

Under the initial rules, students who repeatedly wore “inappropriate” garments like “bib overalls” and “tight skirts that ride halfway up the thigh” could have been sent home from class and given a zero for any work collected that day. They protested. Negotiations ensued.

The new rules allow instructors to knock up to 10 percent off the final grades of students with poor “professional behavior” — punctuality and conduct, as well as dress. Even the relaxed standards serve the intended purpose: “to enhance the overall professionalism of our students,” the department’s chairman, Timothy A. Longfellow, said in a written statement.

No word yet on whether Kyla Ebbert, the San Diego Mesa College student escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight because of her skimpy attire, is considering Illinois State for grad school. —Sara Lipka