For this upcoming First Thursday, tomorrow Nov. 4th, I was assigned to do research on the history of academic robes in light of the inauguration of IU’s new President, Pamela Whitten. First things first, academic robes have their earliest roots in the church. In early Medieval Europe, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries when the degree system was likely first incepted, most scalars were also friars or associated with the Church in some way. So, it would make sense in this way as most of the people affiliated with universities at this time were used to wearing the robes of friars and would adopt their normal attire to their studies at university. Additionally, the robes also served a practical purpose to warm the wearer against the cold universities of the day. As universities became more widespread and open to the public, the attire became less formal and the robes became increasingly reserved for academic events such as inaugurations or graduations, and for the faculty who would commonly wear the robes when teaching. Of course, today robes are primarily used for graduations and other important academic events and are worn to honor the past. However, not all academic robes are the same, there is a lot that you can tell about a person’s academic career based on what type of robe they are wearing.
Interestingly, there are common standards that colleges in the United States and even some countries abroad must follow. These codes are called the intercollegiate system and are followed by over 700 colleges in the United States, Canada, Porto Rico, Philippines, Turkey, and Syria. These codes dictate things from the cut of the robes and the color of the hood and tassel. Most universities in the United States follow these standards with a small handful of exceptions. As stated earlier, you can tell a lot about someone’s academic career based on the robes. For example, those with a bachelor’s degree have a long-pointed sleeve for their cut, masters have a closed sleeve that is squared at the end and the robes go well below the knee, and doctors have robes with full open sleeves that are faced with velvet as well as three velvet stripes on the sleeves. Doctors have robes that are the closest to those of Medieval times. Additionally, one can tell the department one graduated from based on the color of the hood and tassel. Hoods and the stripes on the doctors’ sleeves are required to be colored according to the standard department colors while tassels are optional. Below I have added a list of the colors associated with each department as they are too long to list here. Make sure to attend this coming First Thursday on November 4th from 4-7 P.M.!
Color List:
Business: Drab
Education: Light Blue
Engineering: Copper
Fine Arts: Brown
Humanities: White
Law: Purple
Medicine: Green
Music: Pink
Nursing: Apricot
Pharmacy: Olive Green
Philosophy: Dark Blue
Physical Education: Sage Green
Public Health: Salmon
Science: Gold
Speech: Silver
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