Board of TrusTees - Iowa Lakes Community College

Academic Attire
The academic costumes of today have a history which reaches back more than 800 years 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 costume which evolved bore
a distinct relationship to church garb. Medieval guilds for trades and professions also had the right to
organize themselves into a collegium. In medieval Europe, all townspeople—men and women—wore
long flowing robes or gowns. Cold halls and drafty buildings made caps and floor-length capes with
attached hoods a necessity for warmth. The materials and colors of these gowns varied greatly, according
to the wealth and rank of the individual.
In the United States, as a result of our English heritage, caps and gowns have been used from colonial
times. The styles, colors and materials used in academic regalia were standardized in 1894 by adoption
of 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 is worn open or closed. 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.
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 enables anyone to distinguish at
a glance the bachelor’s, master’s and doctor’s degree, 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. The velvet trim or border
on the hood indicates the major field of study to which the degree pertains. Thus, the Agriculture color
is maize, Arts and Letters is white, Business is drab, Education is light blue, Engineering is orange, Law
is purple, Music is pink, Science is golden yellow, and Theology is scarlet. Doctors of Philosophy wear
hoods trimmed in dark blue. The bachelor’s hood 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.
For Associate Degrees and Diplomas at Iowa Lakes Community College, a cap and gown in the primary
school color of blue has been adopted, without a hood.