ACADEMIC REGALIA AND COLORS One of the most colorful parts of the commencement exercise is the
academic procession. The procession is the official opening of the time honored and traditional graduation ceremonies. The processional starts with the entrance of the governing board, administration, and faculty, followed by the graduating class. The graduates wear black gowns with no hood or color. The faculty of the college, which includes instructors, counselors, librarians and other certificated personnel and administrators, along with the governing board members, and the program guests, wear gowns indicative of their academic rank, The heritage of the cap and gown, with the colorful array of academic hoods, dates back to the Twelfth Century and the establishment of the first universities in Europe. Although there have been many changes in design and color, each individual gown, with its ranks, symbolizes achievements in a particular academic discipline. There are three categories of faculty gowns dependent upon the highest academic degree earned by the wearer. The bachelor’s degree gown is made of black worsted material with long pointed sleeves, and the front is closed at the neck. The master’s gown is made of entire black silk or wool and has a long-closed sleeve with an arc of a circle appearing near the bottom and a slit at elbow length for the arm. The doctoral gown is black silk with full, round, open sleeves with velvet bands sewn around the sleeves. The color of the velvet is usually black, but it may be the same color of velvet as that which edges the hood. The traditional black mortarboard style cap is worn for all degrees. The only difference is the tassel. For bachelor’s and master’s degree holders, it is usually black, but occasionally it is the color of the velvet on the hood. The doctorate tassel is gold. The academic costume is set off by the most distinctive of all insignia, the hood. The hood is made of a black material to match the gown and varies in length according to the degree - bachelor, three feet; master, three and one-half feet; doctoral, four feet. Each hood has a velvet edge of varying width according to the degree - two inches for the bachelor; three inches for the master; and five inches for the doctoral. The edging is carried around to the front to form a neck band. The color of this velvet band designates the academic discipline in which the wearer has earned the degree. All hoods have silk linings of the official color or colors of the college or university at which the degree was earned.
REEDLEY COLLEGE
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