Page 60 - Golden West College Commencement Celebration 2020 Program

A s s o c i a t e A i c n a d A r e mt s i c D e C g o r s e t e u S m u me m e r 2 0 1 5
In the 12th and 13th centuries, when universities were under the jurisdiction of the church, students wore habits, or cloaks with hoods, which were designed to provide warmth in unheated buildings. The more colorful modern academic costume, worn more for its symbolism than for any practical purpose, originated at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England in the 1300s, and has been continuously in use in the United States since colonial days.
The mortarboard cap represents no particular degree or school, except that the short, gold tassel is worn only by holders of the doctoral degree. The tassel may be worn on either side of the cap, or wherever the wind places it! The gown itself is usually black for all holders of baccalaureate or higher degrees. Bachelor’s and master’s degree styles differ little, but doctoral gowns are faced with velvet panels down the front and velvet bars on the bell-shaped sleeves. Only the hood itself shows by its length and colors the distinctions among degrees, academic majors, and colleges or universities which conferred the degrees. The higher the degree, the longer the hood and the wider the velvet facing which outlines the hood: bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor’s hoods are three feet, three and one-half feet, and four feet long, respectively. In addition, the velvet trim is two, three, or five inches wide (narrowing only around the neck) in the same order of degrees. The color of the velvet facing denotes the academic area in which the degree was awarded, as listed below. The colors of the satin lining in the hood are the school colors of the institution where the degree was awarded (e.g., University of California colors are blue and gold, and the University of Southern California’s, maroon and gold). Only the doctor’s hood also includes panels with narrow satin piping.
Velvet "Field" colors, which symbolize academic areas of study, are as follows:
Arts, Letters and Humanities . . . . . . . . . . . White Business ................................ Drab Economics........................... Copper Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Light Blue Engineering ..........................Orange Fine Arts and Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . Brown Journalism ......................... Crimson Law .................................. Purple Library Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lemon Music ...................................Pink Nursing ............................. Apricot Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dark Blue Physical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sage Green Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Golden Yellow Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Silver Gray Theology ............................. Scarlet
Golden West College cap and gown colors represent:
• Green – AA Degree
• Gold – Certificate of Achievement • White – Nursing
Members of the following groups are represented with special stoles:
• Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society • EOPS Program
• Puente Program
• Student-Athletes
• United States Veteran
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