ACADEMIC ATTIRE

The caps, gowns, and hoods worn at college and university functions date back to the Middle Ages. In the 12th and 13th centuries, education was supervised by the church, and many of the students and faculty were members of religious orders. As a result, the academic costumes which evolved bore a distinct relationship to church garb. The medieval scholar wore a habit or cloak to which a cowl or hood was attached. The hood could be pulled over the head in inclement weather, and the cloak provided warmth in the damp and drafty halls of learning of the medieval university.

In the United States, as a result of our English heritage, caps and gowns have been used from colonial times. Until after the Civil War, students at most American universities wore caps and gowns daily while in residence. The style, colors, and materials used in academic regalia, however, were not standardized until 1894 when the American Intercollegiate Commission adopted the Intercollegiate Code.

The Intercollegiate Code provides for three types of gowns. Those for the bachelor’s degree, earned after undergraduate study, have long, pointed sleeves, and are designed to be worn closed. The holder of the master’s degree wears a gown with an oblong sleeve, open at the wrist. The sleeve base hangs down and the rear part of its oblong shape is square-cut. The gown may be worn open or closed. An alternate and older master’s gown is also permissible. This gown is always worn open, has a long sleeve which is square and closed at the end, and has a slit near the elbow which permits the forearm to come through. Gowns for the doctoral degree may also be worn open or closed, but they carry broad velvet panels down the front and three velvet bars on the full, round, open sleeves. This trimming may be either black or the color distinctive to the field of learning to which the degree pertains.

Traditionally, academic gowns for each level are black although an increasing number of American institutions have adopted the European custom of having gowns in the university’s distinctive color. The gown for Harvard University, for example, is crimson, while Princeton’s is black trimmed with orange.

The commencement marshal and faculty leaders are clad in blue and orange doctoral gowns specially designed for UW-Platteville.

The black Oxford or mortarboard style cap is standard in America. Only the doctor’s cap may be made of velvet, and only doctors and the presidents of institutions may wear a gold tassel on the cap.

Of the three pieces of academic attire, it is the hood that adds great color to the ceremony and provides the most readily discernible information about its wearer. The system established by the American Intercollegiate Commission enables anyone to distinguish at a glance the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor’s, and at the same time recognize the university which has awarded the degree as well as the wearer’s field of study. The silk lining of the hood bears the official academic color or colors of the institution conferring the degree.

Persons holding degrees from UW-Platteville, for example, wear academic hoods lined in orange and dark blue. The velvet trim or border on the hood indicates the major field of study to which the degree pertains. Thus, agriculture’s color is maize, arts and letters’ is white, business’ is drab, education’s is light blue, engineering’s is orange, law’s is purple, music’s is pink, science’s is golden yellow, and theology’s is scarlet. Doctor’s of Philosophy wear hoods trimmed in dark blue. The bachelor’s hood, which is sometimes worn upon completion of the course even though the degree has not yet been officially conferred, has the same shape as the master’s hood. The doctor’s hood, however, is both larger and of a different style, having a flat panel at the back.