Academic procession
An academic procession is a traditional ceremony in which university dignitaries march together wearing traditional academic dress. An academic procession forms a usual part of college and university graduation exercises. At many U.S. universities, the colors and styles of regalia are determined by a uniform dress code established in 1895[1].
The installation of a university president is usually accompanied by a much more elaborate academic procession, involving visiting celebrants from other universities. In such processions, the order of appearance is governed by the institution's date of founding, oldest first. For example, when Eisenhower was installed at Columbia in 1948:
The order of academic processions explains in part why universities have a tendency to use strained rationales to claim traditional dates of founding that are as early as possible. For example, the University of Pennsylvania's George E. Thomas[3] writes of a
See also
References
- ^ See Academic dress and American Council on Education, An Academic Costume Code and An Academic Ceremony Guide,[4], "Reprinted with permission from American Universities and Colleges, 15th Edition © 1997 Walter de Gruyter, Inc."
- ^ Jacobs, Travis Beal (2001), Eisenhower at Columbia. Transaction Publishers,ISBN 0-7658-0036-5. (Description of academic procession, p. 119)
- ^ Thomas, George E. (2002), "Building Penn's Brand" Pennsylvania Gazette, Sept-Oct. 2002, 101(1), online text