Kenny Suit, an associate professor of film studies, gave a faculty lecture entitled, “Cap and Frown: How Academic Dress Has Become an Academic Mess.” Speaking on the history and protocol of academic costume, he highlighted the fact that Milligan has not been using the proper heraldic and color pattern that was assigned to the college.
Milligan College follows the 1895 Intercollegiate Code of academic costume, but in the 1980s Milligan changed their hood lining pattern to that of Princeton.
“This is our counterfeit hood. We are imitating Princeton,” he said, pointing to the picture of Milligan’s orange and black hood.
Suit became interested in academic costume protocol when he became a professor at Milligan in the fall of 2001. Faculty members at Milligan wear their academic attire of gowns and hoods four to five times a year, and Suit wanted to ensure his academic attire was up to par.
Academic costumes range from $500-$1000. This high price point sparked Suit’s interest and caused him to begin his research. Later, he submitted a research paper to The Burgon Society, a British fellowship founded to promote the study of academic dress.
The cap, gown and hood have evolved over many centuries with heavy influence from both clerical and secular fashion. In 1895, Gardner Cotrell Leonard gathered representatives from Yale, Princeton, New York and Columbia and designed the Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume. This voluntary code was adopted by about 95 percent of colleges, Suit explained.
Senior Colton Fenner attended the lecture and said he hopes Milligan can one day use the propor color pattern assigned to the college.
“We have a design, and we are not using it,” he said. “It would be really nice if we could use the original design, and it’s kind of silly we aren’t using it.”
Mary Jackson, a research and instruction librarian, said she would like to see the school go back to the original hood or honor both Milligan and Emmanuel with the blending of the two designs as Suit suggested.
“Before this lecture if you asked me if I cared about academic attire I wouldn’t have been very interested,” Jackson said. “But now I’m thinking I want to be on that committee for our academic attire.”
Academic Dean Garland Young said in an email that he would not be “opposed to changing the colors,” but added that the change is not a priority for the college at this time.
And he thinks the college’s choice of color and design don’t necessarily mean they’re not being “proper.”
“What’s proper for Milligan in this matter is something for us to determine,” Young said in an email. “Instead, I would only admit that our hood is not unique—something that is already true of other schools as indicated above.”