New hoods and robes for UCD graduations

dwellondreams

Apparently the gowns are changing for this year's graduates!

The final designs – which went through various focus groups with staff and students – proposed rounded hoods (known as Aberdeen CNNA shape) up to masters level and a square fold style (known as London shape) for masters and PhD, and various colour combinations of St Patrick’s Blue, Saffron and a deep blue, which has been named Celtic Blue. The shape of the hoods sits wider on the shoulders than the existing design and should prevent that regular slip up to the throat so many graduands experience.

http://www.ucd.ie/news/2013/04APR13/240413-New-hoods-and-robes-for-UCD-graduations.html

Pretty awful looking if you ask me... Anyone know if this is definitely happening? Or if we can still wear the traditional faculty colours instead?

beardedmaster

If it's on the UCD website it's definitely happening. Looks completely awful.
Ridiculous that it's being rolled out compulsorily, without any apparent form of student input (they mention "multiple focus groups" - never heard of any of them.)

I'm all for removing archaic, un-needed practices, but I can't see who benefits.
Having different colours for each of the colleges in the school is part of what academia is about - there has to be a bit more respect and formality about the place, the odd time.
Citing interdisciplinary students as being a reason why the colours are a bad thing is fairly weak.

For example, although the colour for Arts is white and for Human Sciences and Social Science is fawn, UCD’s BA students all graduate in white.

The degree in Social Science isn't a BA, it's a BSocSc... I don't do it, but even I know that. Also, Human Science includes postgraduate studies in subjects that don't have Undergraduate degrees, like Education, so the example is poor.

Seems like needless watering down of perfectly reasonable practices in the attempt to appear a more "modern" University, if you ask me.

Maldesu

It's for a couple of hours in a day. Is it that big an issue, really? It's not like you send in your graduation picture with your CV and the colours could mean a job.

beardedmaster

Of course it isn't a "big" issue. It's meaningful to some people, though. And going to college isn't all about getting a job from it after.

Fad

beardedmaster wrote: »

Ridiculous that it's being rolled out compulsorily, without any apparent form of student input (they mention "multiple focus groups" - never heard of any of them.

I was at one of the focus groups, I know a pile of them happened at other times. There was definitely student consultation.

beardedmaster

Where/when were they advertised?

El Siglo

They're absolutely hideous looking gowns. Typical UCD, fix something that isn't broken. The black gowns (red for PhD) and coloured hoods were fine to begin with and seemed to have worked for the last century pretty well. The money now that'll have to be spent on these new gowns could have been used for something useful, like new equipment or paying for journal subscriptions or any other number of useful things than these God awful gowns.

sunbeam

This also look remarkably similar to the Open University Academic Dress colour scheme, especially the bachelors hoods.

Sigourney

Nice design (for a regional technical college summer school office management certificate validated by a lesser-known UK polytechnic).

Rock of Gibraltar

This is atrocious, very tasteless and yet another example of UCD's disregard for aesthetics and history.

I actually don't think the President and the academic council has the authority to do this considering the robes and hood colours are set by the NUI which is whom you receive your degree, so your graduation is a NUI ceremony not a UCD event.

seantorious

Guys, its only graduation. I find it a bit ironic that most students wear the scarf with the same colours and look down their nose at the colours in a robe.

Rock of Gibraltar

seantorious wrote: »

Guys, its only graduation. I find it a bit ironic that most students wear the scarf with the same colours and look down their nose at the colours in a robe.

Actually there are different scarves and ties and such for each faculty in these colours:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_College_Dublin#University_College_Dublin_scarf_colours

You can buy them in the SU shop under the library, they're much more expensive than the college scarf because they're made of wool.

Although those colours are not related to the faculty hood colours which are set by NUI and are common across all NUI uni's and colleges as you can read here
http://www.nui.ie/publications/docs/AcademicDressBooklet.pdf

So it's not something that UCD has the authority to change

Nika Bolokov

Sigourney wrote: »

Nice design (for a regional technical college summer school office management certificate validated by a lesser-known UK polytechnic).

Which is basically what UCD is these days.