Standing in line at the university bookstore with the rest of seniors, he reflects on the last few years of his life as a college student. Tur’ayn Sharpe is graduating this May with his degree in business marketing, and it hasn’t been easy.

Financial aid, housing, and the workload from his courses were all extremely complex. But all those things are a part of his past, and as he approaches the local Jostens representative to order his graduation announcements, his class ring, and the all mighty black cap and gown, he gets butterflies in his stomach. Could this really be happening?

Was he about to join the ranks of the college graduate world?

His excitement is quickly dashed however into confusion, as he is told that the robes are no longer black, but a custom navy blue.

“I think it sounds like it’s a nice way to brand the university image through commencement,” Sharpe said. “It would be a great keepsake as well, and I can always pull it out of storage to show to my grandchildren. I would just want to see the design first. I would also hope that there was some student input.”

In fact, there was student input, although not as much as there could have been. Senior Class President Katerra Riggins was the only student on the commencement committee, and she played an instrumental part in the selection of the final gowns.

“I think they had it in their heads that they were going to with a custom navy blue gown, and the hood was already a part of the plan as well. Jostens was my favorite design, the representative was very personable, very thorough, and they had everything that we needed, which allowed them to do more than the other three,” Riggins said.

“I think the students would have benefitted from being a part of the process, but because it was done over Christmas break, it is hard to get the entire student bodies perspective, but it would have been nice. Overall I’m ok with the decision. I’m for the navy blue cap and gown, and I think students will be pleased.”       

North Carolina A&T isn’t the only school that has made this change. Across the country, colleges and universities of all kinds from Ivy League to historically black colleges and universities are starting to customize their cap and gowns. For some this is an old tradition that has always been, and for some more this is a brand new concept.

“I’ve been here 24 years, and as long as I have been here we have used the light blue robes. The University adopted the doctoral robe in 1999, but they are not required to wear the light blue,” said the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Regalia Purchaser, Eve Bradshaw.

Bradshaw said that ever since the change had been made in the 70s, students have loved it. She said it makes them feel special as an institution, and it really helps to distinguish them from other schools.

“Undergraduates are all light blue. I haven’t heard and students give any negative feedback. More and more schools are going to their custom color.”

And that is true. Bradshaw is one of the many university representatives that are in charge of overseeing academic regalia for commencements. Oak Hall is the largest regalia company for higher education, servicing over 1600 universities across the country, and more and more of them are going towards custom robes.

Donna Hodges has worked for Oak Hall for more than 15 years, and she says that the customization really took off about 12 years ago.

“At the undergraduate level we work with about 75 or 80 schools across the country that are wearing the robes with the caps and gowns and seal embroidered in the tabs,” Hodges said.

“When I came to work for Oak Hall, there were a handful of universities, maybe 15-20, that had their doctorate level students wear a specialized gown. About 12 years ago, we started working with universities to increase the level of participation and excitement at graduation.

They [graduates] have the mindset that ‘I’ve already been through this, do I really need to do this again?’ We also got similar feedback that people wanted something special for their doctorate level.”

Hodges said that graduates feeling like this had a large part in helping to swan the customization trend. Students who had already graduated with one degree wanted something really special.

“One of the things that prompted Oak Hall to do customized gowns was the comment from students we heard constantly was ‘oh this is it? It’s just a black gown? I wore that in high school,'” Hodges said. “What happened at the undergrad and master’s level, was that in 2004, we were approached by Columbia University who was celebrating their 250th anniversary and wanted a unique robe for their undergraduate and masters students to wear.

“They were a completely rental [cap and gown] school, and we got them to agree to go into souvenir regalia because it is very difficult to customize something to only be worn one time as a rental.  We customized the logo for the 250th anniversary.  The students loved it so much that the University decided to keep it and go back to the Columbia crown and Columbia blue gowns after the 250th anniversary.”

Once Columbia began to keep the customized robes not just for grads but also for undergraduate students, the trend began to spread and is now one of the more common changes at universities.

Back at North Carolina A&T, students will be in for an additional special treat this year with their customized caps and gowns. The undergraduates will be permitted to also wear the academic hood with their regalia.

A hood is an additional part of the regalia that is draped down the back of the gown and worn around the neck. The colors inside may be customized from school to school, and very in length from three to four feet, with the doctoral hood being the widest.

The hood on a robe has a history rooted in practicality, rather than in fashionable accessories for graduation. Much like the gown, students in the earliest universities in Europe walked the drafty halls of these institutions, and needed a way to keep covered and warm. The hood was a part of the original robe, and was designed to cover the head to keep it warm and dry.

Typically, hoods are only worn for master’s or doctoral students, but Hodges says that it wasn’t always that way. While some schools still allow undergrads to wear them, many have left this tradition, but are looking at returning to it again.

“Years ago it used to be more common for undergraduates to wear hoods for commencement,” She said. “For some reason schools stopped having their students wear hoods, and that is another reason a lot of schools really got into customized undergraduate robes.”

Oak Hall was just one of several companies that submitted a bid to acquire the contract with A&T to provide the University with its first set of custom cap and gowns, but ultimately, the winning company was Jostens.

“I’ve been working with the A&T bookstore for many many years and I’ve been talking to them for about a year and half to go towards a more customized cap and gown,” said Jostens Representative Leigh Hottel. 

“Jostens also introduced a custom class stole that has been very successful. The stole is a little bit longer, and the stole now has the A&T seal on it as well, because that’s something the chancellor [Harold S. Martin, Sr.] really wanted. The hood will be blue and gold, with a gold fabric around the neck for bachelor’s degrees. The bachelor’s will all have gold, and the master’s or doctorates will have degree color coordinated with their program around their neck.”

Hottel says that she thinks Jostens won the bid due to its long-standing partnership with A&T, and the additional features they provide.

“I would say that A&T recognized the extra value we bring in with our products over the other bids, and we have a long time partnership. We came in a did a presentation to the commencement committee and I think the students are going to be really excited about it,” Hottel said. “We will be in the bookstore March 22-25, the Monday through Thursday of the last full week in March. We will be there again in April and May, to also sell rings and announcements.”

With the cap and gown ordering to soon begin, students may wonder how long they have to order them, or how much they may cost. “We sell the caps and gowns to the bookstore, and they set that deadline on when the last day is to order a cap and gown. As far as on the web, their is a certain amount of lead time you have to have in advance to order. Once the deadline for the web has passed, students are directed to our 800 number, and if all else fails, the bookstore stocks extras,” Hottel said.

Donna Morris-Powell is the Director of the University Bookstore, and she is in charge of setting the prices for the caps and gowns. The cost will be $58 for undergraduate, $80 for graduate students, and $148 for doctoral students. Doctoral candidates will also have the rounded velvet cap, while undergraduate and master’s students will have mortarboards. Powell, like everyone else, is looking forward to the change.

“We love it, it’s absolutely beautiful. We’re extremely excited about the change,” Powell said. “There are quite a few schools that are making that change to customized robes.”Powell says that the prices of the cap and gowns do not change, and the only time things are more expensive is when students must pay for expedited shipping. She encourages students to get it done early.

“I know that when we will have our Grad Fair in March, a lot of students will come out and order their cap and gowns, and then we will have a few stragglers come in towards the end,” she said. ” We also open up the online store for ordering and that gets shut down about 4 weeks before graduation.”

For the students at North Carolina A&T, along with many other schools, old traditions are being replaced with new ones, and this new cap and gown is sure to be a hit.

• Dexter R. Mullins