Academic Regalia

Faculty | Graduating Seniors | Master's Degree Candidates

Graduation robes or “academic regalia” go back to the Middle Ages. The first European universities were started about the time the great cathedrals were being built, and they were also church-related. In those days, most men wore some form of hose (tights) with a gown — short for informal wear and long for formal wear — over them. The clergy, and the students in the new universities, wore black gowns because black did not show ink stains, and these were their ordinary garments during their days of taking notes and copying out texts with a quill pen and a horn of liquid ink.

A detachable hood was part of the standard medieval dress as well; it hung over the shoulders and could be pulled up over the head to keep the sun or rain off, or pulled off with a little rear extension called the liripipe and allowed to hang down the back. Originally the hoods too were black.

By the Renaissance, hats were in and hoods were out. Most hats were soft, flat bags like a tam. The larger ones needed a cardboard stiffener to keep them from falling down over the wearer’s eyes. In the eighteenth century in Oxford, poor undergraduates asked the tailors to leave off as much fabric as they could, so the cardboard stiffeners were all that remained. People thought they resembled the boards masons carried on their heads when working so the term “mortarboard” came into use.

Also in the eighteenth century, hoods became more colorful and were often made in colors that indicated the particular college or degree. Ornamental tassels were added to the mortarboards and generally worn (after graduation) hanging off the left side to keep a clear view of the writing hand. The whole regalia — cap, hood and gown — was worn to all lectures and at all formal college functions right up until the nineteenth century, and in many English colleges the gown is still worn by students attending classes. At Mary Baldwin, seniors put on their caps and gowns for the first time on Founders Day of their senior year, and add the hoods, which are lined with Mary Baldwin’s white and yellow colors, at commencement. The white facings represent the liberal arts. Specialized degrees all have their own different colors, but the liberal arts, like white light, is composed of all the colors.

—Lundy Pentz, Associate Faculty Marshal

FACULTY REGALIA

ROBES: Baccalaureate and master’s level gowns are usually black and are untrimmed, with the sleeves of the master’s gown generally longer. Velvet panels down the front of the gown distinguish doctoral gowns, which may be black or a school color of the university granting the degree. Three horizontal velvet bars, usually of the color representing the wearer’s degree, also mark the doctorate.

CAPS: Only doctoral caps may be made of velvet.

HOODS: The length of the hood indicates the degree, with the bachelor’s being three feet long, the master’s three and one half, and the doctoral four feet. The color of the lining indicates the university at which the degree was earned and is usually the school color.

The border of the hood indicates the academic discipline in which the degree was earned, as follows:

Architecture and Fine Arts - Brown		Arts and Letters- White
Business - Light Brown		Economics - Copper
Education - Light Blue		Engineering - Orange
Dentistry - Lilac		Law - Purple
Library Science - Lemon		Medicine - Green
Music - Pink		Nursing - Apricot
Oratory - Silver Gray		Pharmacy - Olive
Philosophy - Dark Blue		Physical Education - Sage Green
Public Administration - Peacock Blue		Public Health - Salmon
Science - Golden Yellow		Social Work - Citron Yellow
Theology - Scarlet

ACADEMIC REGALIA FOR GRADUATING SENIORS

 

BACHELOR'S DEGREE CANDIDATES

WHO	WHAT	SIGNIFICANCE
Academic Honors and National Honors Societies
Alpha Sigma Lambda	Purple and gold cord; purchased and worn by students who qualify at their choice	National honor society for returning adult students Current Advisor: Nancy Krippel
Beta Beta Beta Alpha Pi Chapter	Red and green cord; purchased and worn by students who qualify at their choice	Biological Sciences Honor Society Current Advisor: Eric Jones
Iota Sigma Pi	White, green, & yellow cord; purchased and worn by students who qualify at their choice	Women in Chemistry national honor society
Kappa Delta Pi	Purple and green twined cords with purple tassels	International Honor Society in the field of Education.
Lambda Pi Eta	Red and white cord; purchased and worn by students who qualify at their choice	National honor society of the National Communication Assoc. Current Advisor: Alice Araujo
MBC Honor Scholars Society	A gold graduation tassel (hung from the mortar board); purchased by the college for qualified students	Current Advisor: Amy Diduch
Omicron Delta Epsilon	Blue and yellow cord; purchased and distributed by the dept to those seniors who qualify	International Economics honor society Current Advisor: Judy Klein
Omicron Delta Kappa	White, blue, and black cords; purchased and worn by students who qualify at their choice	National honorary leadership society Current Advisor: Lynn Gilliland
Phi Alpha Theta	Red and light blue cord; purchased and worn by students who qualify at their choice	National honor society in History Current Advisor: Mary Hill Cole
Phi Beta Kappa	PBK gold pin; purchased and worn by students who qualify at their choice	The oldest national, academic Honor Society Current Advisors: Louise Freeman or Ken Keller
Psi Chi	Gold cord (with gold and blue tassels at each end); purchased by the department for students who qualify	National honor society in Psychology Current Advisor: Christy Barongan
Student Class Marshals	Gold epaulet on left shoulder; lent to top two students by GPA in each class	Advisors: Ken Keller and Lundy Pence
Other Forms of Recognition at Commencement
Ajani	African Kente scarlett and gold stoles cloth stoles purchased by college, awarded to select students at Ajani ceremony	Current Advisor: Tiffany Riddick
Senior Class Officers	A small lapel pin worn on left side of gown with MBC college seal and officer’s position for elected student leaders maintaining 2.3 GPA	Current Advisor: Becky Clemons
Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership	Green and gold cord; for students who complete VWIL program requirements	Current Advisor: Brenda Bryant

MASTER'S DEGREE CANDIDATES

WHO	WHAT	SIGNIFICANCE
MAT	Black, white, gold hood purchased by students	Director: Carole Grove
MLITT	Gold hood with white velvet border purchased by students	Director: Frank Southerington
MFA	White and gold hood with brown velvet border purchased by students	Director: Frank Southerington

Gowns worn by candidates for the Master of Arts in Teaching and the Master of Letters in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance degrees are longer than the ones worn by the bachelor’s degree candidates, as are the bat wing–shaped sleeves. The hood is different, too: It is longer than the one that is worn by those who have earned the bachelor’s degree. The lining is yellow and white, Mary Baldwin College’s official school colors. The trim is white for both programs, because both are based in the liberal arts (see “Faculty Regalia”)