Chancellor agrees to color change
Monique Bhimani
Staff Reporter

Chancellor Victor Boschini decided Tuesday to change the color of the graduation caps and gowns from black to purple.

Boschini said he based his decision mainly on the results of a survey, in which 70 percent of seniors who responded voted in favor of the color change.

“That’s what students wanted,” Boschini said.

The survey, which was sent to 2,010 seniors Oct. 6, got a 48 percent response rate. Of the 965 seniors who responded to the survey, 676 voted to have purple graduation caps and gowns, and 289 wanted to stay with the color black, said Margaret Kelly, director of special projects in the marketing and communication department.

The new gowns should be used as soon as this December, Kelly said. In past years, TCU ordered black cap and gown rentals from a company that also services other college graduations, she said. The new ensembles would be custom-made by Herff Jones Graduation Services, the company TCU uses, she said.

Robert Shryoc, the account representative at Graduation Services, said that only about 50 colleges nationwide have taken advantage of this program to customize the color of graduation caps and gowns.

“(The program) is more common among private universities,” Shryoc said. “The purple (gowns) have been created only for TCU graduates and will be stored in a private facility. The black gowns are usually used by eight different colleges over the course of a year.”

Shryoc said Graduation Services provides customized robes for Harvard University. He said the bachelor gowns will be in the standard regalia style, and the doctoral gowns will be customized with flared sleeves and the TCU logo.

Shryoc said he will have the caps and gowns ready by the end of the semester.

“This will be up and running by December for the December graduates to use,” Shryoc said.

Shryoc said the cost increase of $5.50 is probably because of the different fabric used in the graduation ensemble and the allowance cost for seniors to keep the mortarboard caps this year.