Academic Regalia

The history of academic dress dates back to the early days of the oldest universities. A statute of 1321 required all “Doctors, Licentiates, and Bachelors” of the University of Coimbra to wear gowns. In England, during the second half of the 14th century, the statutes of certain colleges forbade “excess in apparel” and prescribed the wearing of a long gown. It is still a question whether academic dress finds its sources chiefly in ecclesiastical or in civilian dress. Gowns may have been worn for warmth in the unheated buildings frequented by medieval scholars, while hoods seem to have served to cover the tonsured head until replaced by the skull cap. In time, the skull cap was replaced by the mortarboard caps that are used widely today.

In 1895, the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume was formed to establish a suitable code of academic dress for the colleges and universities of the United States. The academic costume code recognizes three types of gowns, usually black. The gown for the bachelor’s degree has pointed sleeves. The gown for the master’s degree has long, closed sleeves with the arc of a circle near the bottom. A doctor’s gown is faced with velvet, and has full, round, open sleeves bearing three bars of velvet on each sleeve. The velvet facing and bars may either be black or the color distinctive of the subject to which the degree pertains. The hood is made of a material identical to the gown and is lined in the official academic color of the institution conferring the degree. When the institution has more than one color, the chevron is used to introduce the second color. For Pace University, the official colors found in the hood are blue and gold. Colored velvet or velveteen binds the hood and indicates the subject to which the degree pertains.

For all academic purposes, the colors associated with the various subjects at Pace University are as follows:

Arts, Letters, Humanities

Commerce, Accountancy, Business

Education

Fine Arts

Health Professions, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Health Professions, Health Science

Health Professions, Nursing

Health Professions, Nutrition and Dietetics

Health Professions, Occupational Therapy

Health Professions, Physician Assistant

Journalism, Publishing

Law

Psychology

Public Administration

Science

(Adapted from American Colleges and Universities, 11th edition, 1973)

White

Drab

Light Blue

Brown

Silver

Sage

Apricot, Dark Blue

Kelly Green

Slate Blue

Kelly Green

Crimson

Purple

Royal Blue

Peacock Blue

Golden Yellow